In a press conference yesterday, George W. Bush threw a fit about the idea that Congress might revoke support for the war in Iraq that it authorized four years ago. Bush said that Congress was “substituting the judgment of politicians in Washington for the judgment of our commanders on the ground.”
There’s a little catch with President Bush’s complaint: Military officers do not have any authority to determine the policies of the federal government. It isn’t the job of generals sitting in the Pentagon to declare when the United States of America will go to war and when war will cease.
President Bush went on to say, “Congress’s most basic responsibility is to give our troops the equipment and training they need to fight our enemies and protect our nation.” That statement is just plain false. It is not the responsibility of Congress to follow the orders of military generals, or the orders of the President of the United States for that matter, and provide money for failed and foolish wars whenever it is told to do so.
It is explicitly stated in the Constitution of the United States of America that Congress has the responsibility and power to determine when war is waged, and when it is not waged. In the USA, military leaders, not even the Commander-In-Chief, have that power. That’s because we do not live in a military dictatorship.
It seems that President Bush is trying to change that.
He’s been trying (by outright lying) to subvert the Congress and through his media campaign change the will of the people toward his fiasco of a war by pumping these talking points out to the great masses of idiots who elected him. Even though his ratings have fallen, you’ll get the military “run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it” approach for the rest of his term, since he can’t argue the merits of his misbegotten adventure (because there really aren’t any). Wait til the Republicans start playing the “Democrats lost the war” song for the next election.
Wow, nice spin truman! What libshitz double talk. Bush was talking about military strategy, not who says when/where there is to be a war.
Tom, we all know democrats will lose a war for the sake of political gain.