Here’s the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, slapping around Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and every other Republican who believes that the commander-in-chief’s role is one of following the advice of the generals.

“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.”

It’s actually debatable as to whether Romney and the rest believe half of what they’re saying.  Their main concern these days is sounding tough and saying the exact opposite of whatever it is Barack Obama is saying. So knowing for sure what anyone of them actually believes (with the exception of Ron Paul) is anyone’s guess.

Whatever the case, it’s kind of refreshing having the military telling Republicans they’re full of crap.

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John McCain is still having problems accepting his 2008 defeat.

“It is clear that this decision of a complete pullout of United States troops from Iraq was dictated by politics, and not our national security interests,” said McCain from the Senate floor. “I believe history will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves.”

Seventy percent of Americans think otherwise.  That’s the number who agree with the President on the troop withdrawal.  But it’s a moot point anyway.  Iraqis wanted the U.S. out of their country.  Couple that with the 2008 agreement President Bush signed with Iraq which set the withdrawal date at December 31 2011 and there was little President Obama could have done even if he wanted to stay in Iraq for another “100 years”. (Remember McCain in the 2008 campaign stating how he’d have no problem keeping U.S. troops in for another 100 years?)

Get over it, John.  You lost.  Obama won.  You got your surge.  Iraq war is over.  But hey, if one of your boys wins next November, you’ll have the Iran war you’ve always wanted to keep you amused.

In the meantime, go plant a garden.

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Joseph Piperni was a corporal in the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Regiment.  On June 6, 1944, he was one of 156,000 Allied troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy – an event which forever changed the course of history.

My dad was never able to talk in length about that day.  Each time he tried, his voice would break, tears would begin to form in the corner of his eyes and he’d inevitably turn his head and look away – lost in thoughts of which I can’t begin to imagine.

To my dad and every other man and woman who ever marched into hell to help preserve freedom for future generations, you will forever have my undying praise, respect and gratitude.

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It’s over.

“After a decade of war, the nation we need to build and the nation we will build is our own.”

And with those words, Barack Obama brings a close to the Iraq war.

The Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training.

One hundred and fifty troops will stay behind to safeguard the US embassy, with the other 39,000 troops home by the end of December.

Iraq war stats:

• Cost: $1 trillion
• 4,481 US troops killed
• 54% of US casualties were under 25 years of age
• Coalition troops killed – 316
• US troops wounded – 32,195, 20% of which are serious brain or spinal injuries
• 30% of US troops have or will develop serious mental health problems
• Iraqi civilians killed – over 100,000 and might be as high as 600,000

All that’s needed to add complete closure to the immoral travesty, is this:

Bastards.

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It’s not all rosy out there but you would be forgiven for believing that the state of conflict and death around the world is worse that what it really is.

The Human Security Report finds that while “four of the world’s five deadliest conflicts––in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia––involve Islamist insurgents” and “over a quarter of the conflicts that started between 2004 and 2008 have been associated with Islamist political violence.”, in fact…

• …the level of armed conflict in Muslim countries is far lower today than it was two decades ago, and support for al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups has declined substantially throughout the Muslim world.
• The 25 percent increase in conflict numbers is largely due to an increase in minor conflicts that kill very few people.
• There has been a modest increase in battle death numbers in recent years, but this needs to be seen in context. The average annual battle-death toll per conflict in the 1950s killed almost 10,000 people; in the new millennium the figure is less than 1,000.

As to why the world is experiencing the positive trend in death related conflicts, the authors offer the following.

The demise of colonialism, the end of the Cold War, a dramatic increase in the number of democratic states, and a shift in elite attitudes towards warfare are among the key political changes that have reduced the incidence of international warfare since the end of World War II.

and…

the dramatic long-term increase in levels of global economic interdependence which has increased the costs of war while reducing its benefits.

We might make it through this decade after all.

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Joseph Piperni was a corporal in the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders Regiment.  On June 6, 1944 he was one of 156,000 Allied troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy – a deed which changed the course of history.

To my dad and every other man or woman who ever marched into hell to help preserve freedom for future generations, you will forever have my praise, my respect and my gratitude.

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I agree with all of this.  Andrew Sullivan.

The canonization of Petraeus has got to stop. He follows in the footsteps of Colin Powell who mastered the art of Beltway schmoozing and press management. But at least Powell won a war where Petraeus has so far lost two (can anyone now believe, as Iraq descends into political chaos and increasing violence, that the surge was simply a face-saver to get most, but not all, of the US troops out, after failing to achieve the original war goals?).

And the Palin meme – that somehow members of the military have some kind of special status in a civilian republic and their political views demand more respect than those of others – is just as repugnant.

We owe servicemembers immense respect and gratitude for their courage and service – but we also owe them – to honor the civilian democracy they serve – no more influence or status in the political arena than anyone else. The idea that the military is given an effective veto over a Congressional and presidential decision is a dangerous precedent.

[...]

This is a country run by civilians, whose elected offices are as valid regardless of their military experience, and the military’s job is to take orders, to offer private and confidential military – not political – advice to their commander-in-chief. Their role after that in public is quite simple: to shut the fuck up.

The way in which Petraeus is leveraging his Iraq experience – an experience which, as every day reveals, ended in total failure except as a temporary face-saver for partial withdrawal – and his media clout to force an elected president into an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan is deeply disturbing. It’s long since time we put these commanders and their enablers in their place.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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Eugene Robinson on the $2 billion a week war.

Just how corrupt is the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan? It should be clear by now that President Hamid Karzai doesn’t want us to know. He’d prefer that we just keep sending our troops and our dollars, and not ask too many questions.

Karzai’s government announced this week that American and allied advisers, dispatched to Kabul to help investigate massive and endemic graft, will no longer be allowed to do any actual investigating. Karzai’s chief of staff told The Post that the government is still determined to eliminate corruption, but intends to do so “within an Afghan framework.”

“…still determined to eliminate corruption.”   Sure they are…about as determined as a leopard is about changing its spots.

At this point, it’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that U.S. soldiers are fighting and dying to prop up a government willing to tolerate — and, allegedly, eager to profit from — corruption on an epic scale, including vast commerce in illegal drugs. It’s also hard not to conclude that billions of dollars sent to Afghanistan by U.S. taxpayers — intended for worthy projects such as roads and schools — have been stolen by wealthy, well-connected power brokers who spend much of their time luxuriating on the beaches of Dubai.

As Robinson points out, this is not the first time that the U.S., for right or wrong, has supported a corrupt regime.  But the difference this time around is that American soldiers are being killed on a weekly basis in support of Karzai and his cronies.  Most can agree that Iraq was an immoral war that should never have been started.  Afghanistan was different.  It was where al Qaeda trained the people who attacked on 9/11.  Something had to be done and attacking Afghanistan in an attempt to rid it of terrorists was the way to go.  But now, nine years after the fact, it is time to reassess what is being done and the worthiness of continuing a war that gives every indication that it cannot be won.

Robinson proposes a solution.

“Bring the troops home and just send duffel bags full of cash to Kabul, Kandahar and Dubai.”

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The numbers are staggering.  Since 2001, the two wars have cost almost $1.1 trillion dollars.

Iraq:  $745 billion
Afghanistan:  $330 billion

Meanwhile, Republicans are making noise about the President’s jobs plan to spend $50 billion on the country’s infrastructure.  ‘Too much for nothing’ is what they’re saying.  Well, to put things into perspective, the current cost of waging war in Afghanistan is close to $2 billion a week.  A week.  And that’s for a war that cannot be won.  Where’s the yelling about that?

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Bob Herbert makes the argument for ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

What we have in Afghanistan is a war that most Americans believe is not worth fighting — and certainly not worth raising taxes to pay for. President Obama has not made a compelling case for the war and has set a deadline for the start of withdrawal that seems curiously close to the anticipated start of his 2012 campaign for a second term.

It’s time to bring the curtain down for good on these tragic, farcical wars. The fantasy of democracy blossoming at the point of a gun in Iraq and spreading blithely throughout the Middle East has been obliterated. And it’s hard to believe that anyone buys the notion that the U.S. can install a successful society in the medieval madness of Afghanistan.

For those who haven’t noticed, we have a nation that needs rebuilding here at home. Maybe we could muster some shared sacrifice on that front.

It’s time to bring the troops back, and nurse the wounded, and thank them all for their extraordinary service. It’s time to come to our senses and put the lunatic’s manual aside.

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