And so it begins...the divide between the left and the right on the matter........

 

From Newsweek:  LET GENERALS SPEAK THEIR MIND

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Pundits are arguing that the President should rely on his generals for advice on troop levels and on strategy.  The generals are critical for advice and input, but President Bush was caught in a trap where he relied on the advice of Rumsfeld, and his generals, Abizaid and Casey.  All he would hear from his "generals" is that the U.S. should stand down so that the Iraqis could stand up.  The problem was that the Iraqis were incapable militarily and politically from solving their own problems.  The surg was required and General Petraeus's leadership to bring security to Iraq.  Bush had to go outside the chain of command to get alternate opinions.

 

Obama has not served long enough to experience the daily grind of losses of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, so he has yet to feel the sting of pursuing a course of action and criticism for not following another, but the casandras are growing. 

 

General Petreaus assembled a highly qualified team that constituted the surge and probably no one in the military or civilian establishment commands a higher status in understand counterinsurrgency and the political problems of the region.  One problem for Obama is that Petreaus is such a presence that a politically modivated president has to marginalize him.  Imagine a war in which a General Grant or a General McArthur, or a General Eisenhour were lurking in the background.

 

Who is included in the Obama strategic review team?  This group should take the recommendations of General Petreaus and General McCrystal and meld them into a national strategy.  What we don't know is what process is President Obama using to make his decisions?  Reliance on generals only has proven to be problematic, but reliance on a novice president to weigh complicated issues is even more worrisome.