Sirota is back in the D&C - This time the topic is Afghanistan.
Hey, look what I found - Sirota has another column in the D&C. Could this be the shape of what’s to come? Are your cards and letters to Opinion editor Jim Lawrence working? Let’s hope so.
This time Sirota’s column is about Afghanistan and who decides policy. We all know the storyline - General McChrystal wants more troops. The President is conducting a strategic review of operations in Afghanistan. As Sirota puts it -
The war in Afghanistan poses two important questions: What should be done and who should be “the deciders”?
I’ll defer the “what should be done answer” to another post but who decides?
Republicans lambasted Obama for letting “political motivations … override the needs of our commanders,” as Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said. Likewise, the Washington Post insisted that Obama’s failure to promptly back McChrystal’s surge proposal could “dishonor” AmeriThe The New York Times said no matter what the president wants, “It will be very hard to say no to General McChrystal.”
[note - seems to be a cut and paste error at the D&C after the word "dishonor"]
Sirota discusses the history of deferring to the military - and all that listening to the generals on the ground.
In the purest articulation of the argument, Ronald Reagan asserted in 1980 that Vietnam was lost not because of flaws in mission or strategy, but because politicians allegedly forced soldiers to fight “a war our government (was) afraid to let them win.” Avoiding another Vietnam, says this school of thought, requires a figurehead government — one that delegates all military decision-making power to generals and effectively strips it from elected civilians who will supposedly be too “politically motivated”(read: influenced by voters). This authoritarian ideology explains not only today’s vitriolic reaction to the president’s Afghanistan deliberations (including the conservative website Newsmax fantasizing about a military “coup” to “resolve the Obama problem”) but also some of the most anti-democratic statements ever uttered by American leaders. It explains, for instance, Vice President Dick Cheneys assertion that public opinion “doesn’t matter” when it comes to military policy, and President Bush saying Iraq “troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, not by political figures in Washington.”
All you followers of the Constitution already know the answer who decides - that would be our elected President of the United States in his role as Commander and Chief.
Also as a personal side note - might I remind you that had we listened to the general on the ground in 1950’s we would have nuked China or at least expanded the Korean war into China.
13 days in October? May have invaded Cuba. The President is wise to get input from all sources but in in the end - the decision is his.
Unfortunately - the deference to the generals instead of the constitution doesn’t seem to have faded away.
Anyway - pop over and read the column - read the comments and if you want to help put a progressive columnist in the stable of D&C syndicated columnists - write Jim Lawrence at jlawrenc@democratandchronicle.com
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One more thing - Sirota is also responding to comments in the D&C on-line post. Pretty cool to have a columnist share some of their precious little time with readers.
[...] Sirota was published the D&C again - this time he was also in the D&C comments as [...]