Josh Marshall calls out General George (Custer) Casey!
Josh Marshall [Talking Points Memo] Saturday, December 23, 2006 -- 10:53 PM EDT
quote:
Sunday's New York Times reports that the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., is now, as the article's headline puts it, "Open to Troop Surge."
Says a 'senior Defense Department official': “They are open to the possibility of some increase in force. They are supportive of taking steps to support the Iraqis in their plan, including the possible modest augmentation in U.S. combat forces.”
This is a silly game we now seem ready to play. In theory at least, senior military commanders give frank advice to the commander-in-chief. But the president is their ultimate superior in the chain of command. They work for him. So they do what he says. Period. The only real alternative is principled resignation. But let's not get distracted from the main point. It seems clear that most of the Army brass oppose an expanded troop presence in Iraq. As the Times notes, until recently, Casey himself has "argued that sending more American forces into Baghdad and Anbar Province, the two most violent regions of Iraq, would increase the Iraqi dependency on Washington, and in the words of one senior official, 'make this feel more like an occupation.'"
The premise of this narrative is that the president is slowly persuading the generals of the logic of his position that we should escalate the conflict in Iraq by inserting however many tens of thousands of new troops into the country. But the premise is bogus because it is the duty of the three and four star generals to come around after the president does not accept their contrary opinions. He's in charge. They're not in charge. That is how we all want it to work -- though, admittedly, it is somewhat harder to stomach when the president is a stubborn, serial bumbler.
Perhaps Casey really is changing his mind. But having no choice about the matter has a way of greasing the cognitive skids. And the long sought increase in the size of the Army makes the pill more digestible.
I know that in theory Casey could oppose the president's plan, honestly explain his opposition before Congress when called to testify and then dutifully execute it on the president's order. But that's not the real world. He adopts the president's position, gets Shinseki'd or resigns, with the first overwhelmingly likely, the second a distinct possibility and the third close to unheard of. Why muddy up an already complicated and grave situation by pretending anything else?
-- Josh Marshall
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