Friday, July 13, 2007
Listening to the Generals On The Ground
Another day, another columnist stating that we should let General Petraeus do his job, since he is the expert. George W. Bush is fond of this construct since it suits his purposes. George W. Bush fires Generals who don't think his war in Mesopotamia is a really good idea. He replaces them with people who can look him in the eye and tell him "you're doing a heckofa job commander dude". 
Bush then goes in front of cameras, and says I can't do anything. Gotta listen to that General who agrees with my crazy policies. He is the expert. Give "his" strategy some time to work. I'm just the President, what can I do? I have to listen to the guy with stars on his helmet.
If you ran a business and you hired Carrot Top as your outreach co-ordinator to fortune 500 companies because you thought he was funny and he relates to you on an intellectual level, you aren't allowed to say we can't abandon the comedian, because he has a plan in place.
Every day, we are told that General Petraeus must be given until Septemember to see if "his plan" will work. His plan was to salute the president and follow orders. It's the same plan that has continued to fail us.
If we listened to the Generals who are retired, and have no axe to grind, our troops would be packing their bags right now.
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