Yesterday, we learned that the civilian leadership at the Pentagon seems increasingly fond of what’s been dubbed the “double down” policy for Iraq, whereby there would be a substantial buildup in American troops in the country, despite the potential for making a dreadful situation worse.
Apparently, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are not on board with the plan.
The nation’s top uniformed leaders are recommending that the United States change its main military mission in Iraq from combating insurgents to supporting Iraqi troops and hunting terrorists, said sources familiar with the White House’s ongoing Iraq policy review.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney met with the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday at the Pentagon for more than an hour, and the president engaged his top military advisers on different options. The chiefs made no dramatic proposals but, at a time of intensifying national debate about how to solve the Iraq crisis, offered a pragmatic assessment of what can and cannot be done by the military, the sources said.
The chiefs do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq, said sources familiar with their thinking, but see strengthening the Iraqi army as pivotal to achieving some degree of stability. They also are pressing for a much greater U.S. effort on economic reconstruction and political reconciliation.
No wonder there are rumors about Bush wanting to fire Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace — the chiefs aren’t telling the president what he wants to hear. The White House continues to see the military as the key to resolving the crisis, while the Chiefs clearly don’t.
As Josh Marshall explained, “It does appear you’ve got a basic division in the country: the public and the military brass on one side and President Bush and the DC war pundits on the other.”
I wonder who The Decider will side with.