Presidents are accountable to the public, Commanders-in-Chief are not and shouldn't be. That is why that Clinton bombed Quonset Huts and Aspirin Factories, because he allowed himself to be guided by public opinion and used the military as a tool to garner approval.
Conservatives should never elect a person so hollow of character as to look to public opinion to gauge the correctness of a military action. A President is a fool to put his finger to the wind before talking to the Defense Sec. and the Joint Chiefs. That is why President Bush will allow his approval rating to tank in the face of doing what is right. If the President is ready to ask one Marine to fire his rifle, he must be ready to send the nuclear triad on the enemy in spite of any public concerns. That is why we give him that responsibility.
You said — “Presidents are accountable to the public, Commanders-in-Chief are not and shouldn’t be. That is why that Clinton bombed Quonset Huts and Aspirin Factories, because he allowed himself to be guided by public opinion and used the military as a tool to garner approval.”
Accountable to the public and “guided by public opinion” are two completely separate things. I never said a commander was to do his job by checking back with the public all the time. But, the public will have his butt (either sooner or later) if there is an uprising against him — that’s for sure.
And that goes for the President, too.
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And then — “Conservatives should never elect a person so hollow of character as to look to public opinion to gauge the correctness of a military action. A President is a fool to put his finger to the wind before talking to the Defense Sec. and the Joint Chiefs. That is why President Bush will allow his approval rating to tank in the face of doing what is right. If the President is ready to ask one Marine to fire his rifle, he must be ready to send the nuclear triad on the enemy in spite of any public concerns. That is why we give him that responsibility.”
Well, right in that first sentence, you obviously seem to think that accountable to the public is taking public opinion polls. And as I said in my first remarks, just above, accountability and running things by polls are two different things.
The rest of your comment is all about polls and I’ve never said that.