Held hostage by our military

General won't promise more Iraq pullouts
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
8 Apr 2008
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress Tuesday that hard-won gains in the war zone are too fragile to promise any troop pullouts beyond this summer, holding his ground against impatient Democrats and refusing to commit to more withdrawals before President Bush leaves office in January.

Forgive me, but when did the military take over policy?

Our continuing engagement in Iraq is a policy issue.

If we decide to stay, then, yeah - the military is tasked with achieving whatever strategic objectives we articulate. They are NOT responsible for the decision to stay, or for the strategic objectives! These are to be determined by our civilian leadership.

[... and is it appropriate to characterize "fragile" gains as gains at all?]

Stop the madness!