"The War Within": A quick lunchtime post

Some thoughts after reading the first three parts of Bob Woodward's "The War Within" in the Washington Post:

• President Bush has long made a big deal about troop levels being determined by the generals. But it's clear that's almost never been true. When the generals wanted lots of troops -- for the invasion -- they didn't get 'em. When they wanted to start pulling troops out, Bush ordered the surge. Only when Bush promoted Gen. David Petraeus to command in Iraq did he get a general on the same page with him.

"The generals will decide," then, has almost always been a lie.

• Yes, much of the military leadership opposed the surge. Why? Because they were afraid it had so overextended the Army that America would be vulnerable to a national security incident elsewhere in the world. Bush essentially gambled with America's security in ordering the surge; conservatives are claiming he won that gamble -- and it's great that violence has been reduced in Iraq -- but it might've looked different if America had suffered some sort of attack in that span. We're lucky that didn't happen.

What's interesting about all this is that the resistance clearly signals the generals didn't believe continuing operations in Iraq to be in America's national security interest -- or, at least, not of paramount importance to the security. Hmmm.

• Still, it's troubling that the Bush Administration had to essentially invent a chain of command -- Bush to Petraeus -- that circumvented the actual chain of command. The military is supposed to be subservient to civilian commands, and it's troubling from a Constitutional perspective if the generals aren't actually granting that deference.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think Bush has been a very good leader. But Democrats who might cheer the generals' resistance should soberly contemplate what might happen if a President Obama gives an order the military doesn't like. It gets harder and harder to maintain a democracy when the military starts freelancing, even a little bit.