[xrp]

"They were right with George Washington. He had been a military person. But I'm not sure whether a non-military commander-in-chief, no matter which party he's from and no matter who he or she is, has the background or the instincts to take us to war."

Newbarf is an idiot. The commander in chief of the American military is a civilian because the founding fathers wanted to avoid the prospects of a military dictatorship. They also knew that a civilian might be more reluctant to go to war. They also knew that a civilian would get out of the way when war was the last resort (Iraq had 12 years) and let the military run things from there. They also INTENDED for the president (executive branch) to only be responsible for the defense of the United States, not to be responsible for social security, mediscare, war on drugs, the economy, creating jobs, AIDS research, reducing teenage pregnancy, etc, etc, etc. At least the founding fathers had faith in Americans to perform those functions on their own, without the government telling them how to do it.

[okie01]

"They were right with George Washington. He had been a military person. But I'm not sure whether a non-military commander-in-chief, no matter which party he's from and no matter who he or she is, has the background or the instincts to take us to war."

Be advised that Al Neuharth had no difficulty whatsoever with the very non-military President Bill Clinton, a draft dodger, taking us to war in Kosovo.

And let's not even talk about the real motivations behind Billy's Balkan Adventure...

[GeorgiaYankee]

"They were right with George Washington. He had been a military person. But I'm not sure whether a non-military commander-in-chief, no matter which party he's from and no matter who he or she is, has the background or the instincts to take us to war."

He must have been talking about Bill Clinton taking us into Bosnia and Kosovo, right? Myopia, thy name is Al Newbarf!