The president isn't the C-in-C after all, and no one seems to have noticed

Technically Congress is the one with the power to say where our troops go and where they don't.
But that stopped being true several generations ago.

In place of Congress, the Commander-In-Chief gives the orders to the troops.

So when President Trump says "Let's go," the military is obliged to say "Yes, Sir! Right away, sir!"
That's what the Constitution says.

If Trump is going to pull U.S. forces out, he’s going have to wrestle with military dogma first, according to retired Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a senior fellow for Defense Priorities who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Bless their hearts, but there is nowhere in the world we are deployed that a military leader is going to go on record and say, 'yeah, I think you're right, we should probably shut this down,'" Davis told Military Times.

While the president seems content with eliminating ISIS holdovers and pulling out, the generals he tends to trust may be interested in pursuing broader, more strategic concerns in the region.

"The only reason for staying there in the long run is to hurt Iran and Russia,” Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies, told Military Times.

"Bless their hearts"?
How patronizing can you get?

So who's in charge of saying where the military is deployed, and who we'll "hurt"? Does he/she have a name?
Is he/she in the Pentagon, or not?

But two of Trump’s most senior advisers on the issue emphasized that the war remains unfinished—and will not be finished even after ISIS’ final redoubts in Syria fall.

Fortunately, the President doesn't have to listen to advisers or generals or anyone, if he doesn't want to.

Five days after hearing their mission might end abruptly, the U.S. commanders and troops who have been fighting ISIS in Syria got a new message from their commander in chief: their mission will continue indefinitely.

Just like Trump originally wanted. Or the opposite.
Oh well. We'll respect the Constitution next time, unless it gets in the way again.

How do you think the media reacted to Trump's decision to leave our illegal war in Syria?

WashPost: Trump’s mind-boggling gift to America’s enemies
WashPost: Trump says we’re leaving Syria ‘like, very soon.’ Bad idea.
WashPost: In Syria, we ‘took the oil.’ Now Trump wants to give it to Iran.
CNN: Is Vladimir Putin Trump's top adviser on Syria?
NYTimes: Trump’s Approach to Syria Is No Way to Run a War
USAToday: Keep U.S. troops in Syria for now
Brookings: How withdrawing from Syria would embolden Russia and Iran
etc.etc.

The news media is unanimous on Syria: More War!

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thanatokephaloides's picture

And the strategery involved in getting that to happen is often far more Byzantine than the conduct of the war itself.

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@thanatokephaloides
But then the response should have been: "OK Mr. President, but it'll take X amount of days."

instead the response is: "No Mr. President. We'll let YOU know when we'll pull out."

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Bisbonian's picture

@gjohnsit but the funding stops tomorrow.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Pluto's Republic's picture

...at their obscure New York headquarters, where the owners and key figures of those media monopolies meet with their counterparts from the Pentagon, Intelligence Agencies, and State Department to coordinate.

The fact that this sentence looks nuts ^^^^^ is the most meaningful part of this comment.

Since WWI, the Trump syndicate is the only administration where the President and appointed heads of those government agencies and departments were not active members of the CFR.

[edit:typo]

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

It looks like right now that the Pentagon and CIA are deciding war and foreign policy. I doubt if Trump knows half the shit they are doing.

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ggersh's picture

@MrWebster @MrWebster

I doubt if Trump knows half any of the shit they are doing.
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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

is divided between those who want to destroy ISIS and get out and those who want to revive ISIS and stay in on behalf of their King, Salman of Saudi Arabia, for whom the CIA works, meaning ARAMCO, meaning the Standard Oil family of companies, meaning the Council on Foreign Relations, as has been described in this discussion.

It's time we named treason for what it is, acting in the interests of foreign governments and corporate killers whose interests are against the United States.

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It looks like right now that the Pentagon and CIA are deciding war and foreign policy. I doubt if Trump knows half the shit they are doing.

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Big Al's picture

people, which is what he does. He was lying, obfuscating. And it's further proof he simply doesn't know what he's doing. The U.S. has set the stage for long term occupation and control in Syria and Trump wasn't saying that would change. Time to move the emphasis to Iran, this is setting the stage for when he rejects the Iran nuclear deal in May.

The war in Syria has always violated the Constitution, this doesn't change that either.

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Big Al's picture

The (Largely Unrecognized) U.S. Occupation of Syria

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49139.htm

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@Big Al

Good to hear somebody at least say it like it is, not that that rights any wrongs. But sometimes it feels as though the almost the only sanity and morality is clustered in this and at a few other sites, even though I know, so to speak, that the ruth is out there...

Let sanity reign, at long last. Please!

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.