Obama is not my Commander in Chief.

[excringency]

When I was a member of the U.S. military the President of the United States was my Commander in Chief. I worked for him. After my military obligation was over I once again reverted to civilian status. At that point the president once again worked for me. He is only the Commander in Chief of the members of the armed forces. I know this seems to be a bit nit picky, but I'd like folks to understand (or remember) how it's supposed to work. As free citizens we have no commanders. So, when I hear people talk about deferring to the generals and falling into line behind our Commander in Chief I'd like to remind folks of this fact. The generals work at the pleasure of the president, and the president in turn serves at our pleasure.

[F4lconF16]

1. K&R nt

[GP6971]

2. Many people who never

served can't wrap their head around this reality.

[Iggo]

6. Actually it's real easy for those of us who've never served to wrap our heads around the reality...

...that we don't have, and never have had, a commander.

[erstickendarauf]

19. 95 to 98 percent of Americans have zero understanding of the military and how it actually works

They did not serve so they cannot know or really understand the inner workings or the culture.

Never forget their understanding of the military is nothing but second hand, anecdotal, hearsay and Hollywood.

[Man from Pickens]

3. slight quibble

As citizens, we not only have no commanders, we are the commanders/masters of our public servants.

Unfortunately, it seems no matter who we hire, the silverware keeps getting stolen.

[99th_Monkey]

5. +101 nt

[BrotherIvan]

10. + infinity

[Maynar]

15. +1000

[Art_from_Ark]

18. It's not just the silverware any more

It's more like the silverware, the TV, the computer, the car, the washing machine, the dryer, the cell phones...

[ND-Dem]

20. they're moving the whole house and rolling up the land it sits on

[woo me with science]

30. [phone]

[MADem]

4. He is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.

And he works for We, The People.

This "civilian control of the military" is a good thing--much better than "Presidents" in pompous fake-military costumes with big fancy hats and lots of invented medals and gold braid, certainly. Those guys tend to turn into dictators in a hurry!

[SunSeeker]

12. "civilian control of the military"

Yes, that's why the 2nd Am was added to the Constitution - to provide for a well regulated civilian militia so that we could avoid having a standing army.

But that was almost immediately ignored, and after about 200 years of the 2nd Amendment being ignored as an anachronism, it got hijacked by the NRA and the 5 conservative assholes on our Supreme Court. Now the 2nd Am. apparently means knuckle-dragging mouth breathers get to terrorize us with their AR-15s.

[MADem]

13. At least they aren't wearing big hat uniforms and strutting around the Oval Office, though... nt

[blkmusclmachine]

7. ,

,

[JayhawkSD]

8. This is not a minor point.

"I know this seems to be a bit nit picky..."

Not at all. It is an important point.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. If it makes you feel any better.....

I once heard a Fox News dickweed refer to Shrub as "The Commander in Chief of the Free World."

Yes, he actually said that.

[freshwest]

11. Anyone who has been to public school should know that already.

[Panich52]

14. Except sometime after I left school, civics classes seemed to have been abandoned

Sen Byrd got Constitution Day passed - all schools are s'posed to focus on that doc f/ the day. But that's way to short-term. Year-long civics needs returned to jr high (grade 8 or 9 t least).

[freshwest]

17. Right about the time I left, too, so I heard, but of course I wasn't there.

We were taught Civics from elementary school where I lived. We even had class elections for POTUS, etc. Voted on what elective subjects we would have - yes, even in elementary school.

We knew every president, war, state and capitol,branches of the government, how laws were made, the Constitution and the amendments, the separation of powers, and a lot of progressive history, civil rights including minority struggles, labor history, women's sufferage, voting etc.. all from a supportive viewpoint of how to make the government of We the People better. .

I presume too much sometimes to think that others recieved the public school education I took for granted, which also enabled my generation to justify ending wars, imperialism. corruption and to push for more civil rights for all.

In later talks with friends looking in retrospect, one person suggested that Nixon elminated Civics from public schools ito prevent another generation like us being able to experience an intellectual mileau to resist the plans of those like him.

The great dumbing down and destruction of one of the most education loving and technologically advanced and forward thinking societies in history took a while, but we seem to be galloping into the Idiocracy. And most love it, apparently.

For the rest of it, this is mental torture.

[Blanks]

22. Yes, but there is a new conservative philosophy...

That claims that history has been controlled by liberals, so you can't believe any American history that you learned in school.

Only Rush, Glenn Beck and Fox News can be trusted to tell us how the government works and what the founding fathers intended.

[truebluegreen]

16. This is very true...

and every civilian outranks every admiral or general in the armed forces. Would that they recognized that.

[onenote]

24. Outranks them?

Not really. Certainly not in the sense that every (and any) civilian has the authority to direct the actions of an admiral or general.

The reality is that admirals and generals are answerable to their commanders all the way up the chain to the commander in chief (i.e. the President). And the President is answerable to the people in the indirect way elected officials are answerable to the electorate in a representative democracy.

[truebluegreen]

25. yes. As their employers. nt

[onenote]

27. Under a very specific employment "contract"

That doesn't give these "employers" the right to direct their "employee" to do anything once he or she has been "hired". As "employers" we can only "fire" our employee once, and only if our employee chooses to seek to retain their position for a second term. And even if a majority of the people want to "fire" (or not "rehire&quot the President, it doesn't matter. What matters is whether the people in the various states select electors representing a majority of the electoral college to either rehire the president or hire the other candidate for the job.

In other words, the relationship between the President and the people is unlike any other "employment" relationship to the extent that calling the electorate "employers" and the President an "employee" is actually pretty silly.

[TexasProgresive]

21. That was babyBush's admin that pushed that meme

The president as "commander in chief" was always that the military was under the control of a civilian government and not separate as in some countries. The top of the military command is the president as Commander in Chief to the Secretary of Defense to each of the regional commands such as the United States Pacific Command whose leader was formerly called Commander in Chief, U. S. Pacific Command. Rumsfeld though that it was demeaning to the office of the president as Commander in Chief to have others with the title and so striped the military commanders of that title.

Most people did not know about the other commander in chiefs and could care less but they wanted to make babybushh out to e be some kind of big deal. This was a rovian coup in my mind. He took a nobody failure and shaped him into some kind of "great leader" in the minds of some very gullible people.

The sad thing is babybush was never more than a marionette with a cadre of evil string pullers hiding behind a cardboard stage.

[bigwillq]

23. K and R

[Orsino]

26. While he is America's CinC...

...I would agree with anyone noting the jingoistic equation of the presidency with military command. It's a symptom of our petmanent state of war and of the very mindset the ad is decrying.

[niyad]

28. k and r

[woo me with science]

29. kick

[Vattel]

31. The problem with too many CICs, though,

is that that in matters of national security they act as if they are above the law and hence not subject to the authority of the people.