Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Generals Get It


Pretty much everything the R candidates for president say is egregious in some way: an outright lie, a clueless embarrassment, a failure to understand something basic about how our democracy works. Somewhere near the top of the list, though, is their constant and unanimous refrain that in matters of military decisions, they'd go with what the generals told them. By implication, they like to condemn President Obama for making his own decisions, after input from the generals. And others. Horror of horrors: he hasn't always followed their advice!

I wonder what part of "Commander-in-Chief" those Rs (and the RWS™, the brainwashed teabaggers) don't understand. What part of "civilian control" eludes their comprehension? Refreshing, isn't it, that actual generals, including the current Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, understand how it works, and like it that way:

"I'll probably make news with this but I find some of those articles about divergence or control of the generals to be kind of offensive to me," Dempsey told reporters traveling with him in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"And here's why. One of the things that makes us as a military profession in a democracy is civilian rule. Our civilian leaders are under no obligation to accept our advice; and that's what it is. Its advice. It's military judgments, it's alternatives, it's options. And at the end of the day, our system is built on the fact that it will be our civilian leaders who make that decision and I don't find that in any way to challenge my manhood, nor my position. In fact, if it were the opposite, I think we should all be concerned." (emphasis mine)


In politics, we'll always have idiots. Nature of the beast. Lately, though, it seems they're the rule, rather than the exception. But democracy depends on the ability of voters to recognize that idiocy, to know when they're being played for fools. Sadly, as teabaggers have shown us, that ability, becoming a vestigial organ, is withering away at an unsustainable rate.

7 comments:

  1. Ummm..
    hers's a hypothetical, cause I hope your not still operating...
    So if President Barak Hussein O-Stalin shows up in your neighborhood OR and has some better ideas about how to tie one of those surgeon-things, or wants to know why there isn't any Methoxyflurane on the Narkomed, the Surgeon/CRNA has to do what he Says???
    Oh no, this is MEDICINE and you have to have 5 years of Med School/+ Internship/Residency/Fellowship unless your a PA or Nurse Practitioner.
    But someone with less Military Experience than Lee Harvey Oswald, who called a Navy Corpsman a "Corpse-Man"(great idea for a new Super Hero)and throws like a girl, can order a 2,000 Warhead Nuclear Attack and the Generals are supposed to click there heels(will probably be high heels in a few years with Don't Ask/Dont Smell His-Straw)salute, and carry on??
    You Suh, are a Twit!!

    Frank

    PS: wasnt that Eisenhower guy a slob?, meeting the president with NO TIE!?!?!?!?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're right, Frankie. How could the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (and the writers of The Constitution) have been so wrong? Where were you when they needed you?

    ReplyDelete
  3. and did you note the efficient Hemingway-esque way I insulted/..
    1: the President ("O-Stalin"? boy I crack myself up)
    2:PAs, Nurse Practitioners
    3: the Muslim-in-Chief again..(he DOES have less Military service than LHO)
    4: BHO again, "Corpse-Man" :)
    5: Ditto, lefties everywhere turned in shame at Barry's weak ass first pitch. Say what you will about "W", he had a good fastball.
    6: "Don't Ask/Don't Smell" I made that up myself.
    7: I know thats not Eisenhower, its Patton.

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  4. Riiiiight. And I guess you get the irony of the picture, too, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry, Frankie, I thought you were kidding. It's MacArthur, whom Truman famously shit-canned. Civilian control.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lets see..
    Joe McCarthy-Richard Nixon-Studebaker-Television....
    OK I listened to that stupid "We didn't start the fire" song and didn't here one mention of this "MacArthur" character. And I'm pretty sure if he wasn;t even as important as Liberace,Sally Ride,Malcolm X, Ollie North, Bernie Getz, I didnt miss anything.
    Just kidding, I wiki-ied "MacArthur" and it seems he DID exist and wanted to Nuke the Koreans, I just got him mixed up with Patton.
    Thats what you get from goin to Pubic Schools.

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1. Hemingway's writing was not efficient as much as crisp, clear, to-the-point. Incomparable.
    2. The insurance companies are great at deciding what to pay surgeons, right?
    3. All doctors are smarter than PA's and NPs. That must be why so many have them seeing their patients. And, if amount of education matters,as it does in the case of MD vs NP, then where one gets that education also matters; hence a law degree from #1 Harvard beats a PhD in history from #50 Tulane; ergo, BHO is smarter than NLG.
    4.Military service = Being a Good President. Not.(e.g.: U.S. Grant)
    5. Pronunciation gaffs: start with "Nucular" vs nuclear (George W. Bush)
    6.Greater cringe-factor: weak throwing arm vs male cheerleader? (e.g.: GW Bush at Yale)
    7.Don't ask - Please don't tell. (that should be the rule; who cares- and who even wants to know?)
    8. Historical reference: Billy Joel?
    DD

    ReplyDelete

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