When President Bush ran out of answers for Iraq about a trillion dollars ago, he decided to defer to the military. "The Decider" no longer decides when we leave Iraq, that’s up to Gen. Petraeus. John McCain agrees there will be no withdrawal before its time, in other words, before the general says so. It’s good to be the general because you get to make the decisions and you don’t have to run in the primaries or eat that terrible chicken they serve at political fundraisers. But it is fair to look at our history to see what would have happened if our other presidents kept listening to their generals.
There was the case of General George McClelland in the Civil War. McClelland reassured Lincoln he would attack, but he had the worst case of cold feet in U.S. history (unless you count the time Uncle Nunzi joined the Polar Bear Club for a winter swim at the Shore). If Lincoln had stayed with McClelland, the Army of the Potomac would have eventually died of old age without ever firing a shot and we would still have slavery and be eating fried green tomatoes instead of pizza.
Although we had some great generals in World Wars I and II, there never was any doubt Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were running the show. Democrats would almost rather give you a tax cut than defer to the military. But then Harry S. Truman ran headlong into Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
The Korean War was dominated by Mac- Arthur. The general was a military hero of World War II, who also wore sunglasses really well. I’m not saying MacArthur was vain, but if he had stayed around long enough, Carly Simon would have written a song about him. MacArthur thought he could whip the North Koreans with one hand behind his back. War tends to look easy when you are planning it from Tokyo and have never experienced a Korean winter. MacArthur assured Truman the 300,000 Chinese massing at the Yalu River would never dare enter the war. He was so sure of himself he ignored the president’s orders and tempted fate (he also laid 3-1 with his bookie and took the "under" on the casualty figures). MacArthur thought he could recoup by dropping atom bombs on China. Truman responded by firing him. MacArthur thought he should be rewarded for botching the war and insubordination by being elected president. After losing, the old soldier just faded away.
Dwight Eisenhower didn’t need to listen to his generals because he had been one himself. Ike was not your stereotypical military man, despite his success in World War II. He didn’t think war was the natural condition of man. He promised to end the Korean War and did so, without victory. No matter what your history books say, the Korean War ended in a stalemate, not in the "W" column. That’s the bad news. The good news is the stalemate has lasted more than 50 years without any further bloodshed. In this case, a tie was less like kissing your sister than getting to pinch Marilyn Monroe. Eisenhower ended his presidency by warning us against the "military-industrial complex." A warning we continue to ignore to this day.
President John F. Kennedy learned his lesson the hard way. Against his better judgment, he allowed the invasion of Cuba because his generals intentionally deceived him about its chances for success. The generals believed once the invasion began, they could force Kennedy to change his mind about using American troops in an all-out invasion. He didn’t. We lost. He got blamed. He swore never to let his generals decide anything again, other than whether to wear dark socks with blue uniforms.
Gen. Westmoreland is still predicting there is a light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam, or at least he would be had death not relieved him of his myopia. The Pentagon’s track record is that it is apprehensive about going to war, but once involved, is full of sunny conjectures. The generals are often brave and courageous, but their predictions are about as accurate as Vegas Vic on a bad day.
Let’s recap: If all our presidents had listened to their generals, we would have lost the Civil War, been at war with China and quite probably the Soviet Union, and still be fighting in Vietnam. If we continue listening, we will likely be in Iraq for the next 100 years. On the other hand, we could let the generals make all the decisions, do away with elections and layoff Chris Matthews.
You decide.
