I'm not sure if you've heard, but George Bush likes to listen to generals and admirals and guys with lots of ribbons and medals (until they retire). They give him all kinds of super advice that he always listens to - even if he doesn't agree (Eric Shinseki got promoted, right?). In fact, he says this all the time to the press. Indeed, one of his favorite phrases in this regard refers to the "commanders on the ground."
He really, really likes them (especially since they're responsible for actually blowing things up, something he kind of missed out on in the early 1970s), so much so that he's publicly referred to their judgment at least 280 times in the last 5 years, according to LexisNexis. Google gives me boatloads more results - 71,100, to be exact. Matt Yglesias wrote a succinct piece the other day on three of everyone's favorite Village Elders (the Awesome Triumvirate of McCain, Lieberman and Petraeus) where he rightly questions "The Cult of the Commander." But here's the problem - Bush is openly defying the leader of our armed forces at this very moment.
Joint Chiefs chairman: close Guantanamo
In the above article that just showed itself on my Yahoo News home page, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (kind of an important position, as it were), openly admits that Gitmo is "pretty damaging" to U.S. foreign policy, and that we ought to close it. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, you would think that his opinion would carry a lot of force with a President who has so repeatedly proclaimed that his "commanders on the ground" are his best counsel on these sorts of issues. So we're going to see Gitmo closed in like, two weeks, right? Right? I eagerly await this - it's going to happen, right, since he does listen to his Awesome General Guys?
This hypocrisy, to me personally, really stinks to the highest order. The traditional media worships, WORSHIPS, at the altar of Petraeus, without any regard for the fact that he's not even following his own advice. I don't have the numbers right in front of me at this very moment, but I believe that the troop level prescription of the current Army Counterinsurgency Manual (written by Petraeus) for effective operations is something like two or three times (if not more) our current troop level (on a per square mile basis).
And so there will be no glowing write ups of Admiral Mullen in the Washington Post in the coming weeks for these statements. There will be no question as to why civilians have ceded practical control of our armed forces to active duty commanders (kind of unconstitutional, but the Congress and the press has done a bang up job on telecom immunity, habeas corpus, military tribunals, torture, and the Patriot Act, right? So no worries). There will be no open exposure of the fact that the Bush administration has wrought tremendous destruction upon the most powerful and most effective military force in the world, driven morale to an all time low and desertion rates to an all time high. There will not be a series of articles on the lack of an exit strategy from the Bush administration (even if things go well). There will be no condemnation of the contempt of veterans and dissenting active service members held by this administration. There will be no open wonderment as to how President Bush can say one thing and do another over and over and over again.
But, have you heard about Soldier/Scholar/Deity David Petraeus?
Have you heard that the surge is working?