Military Minds help me out with a bush decision

[BOSSHOG]

bush now has his War Czar (or whatever they are calling the post.) He has put a three star general in charge of four star generals. I can not see it any other way. bush couldn't get anyone to take the job so he dips down the chain of command to appoint a LGEN to oversee the four stars. Tell mey I'm wrong. Tell me stop being such a skeptical sonofabitch about decisions made by a reservist who couldn't promote past O-2!!!

I'm well aware of "positional authority" but this is fucking ridiculous. One might say desperation to fill a post already out of the bag.

[whistle]

1. The Czar will be only another advisor, Bush will remain the decider

[Monkeyman]

2. This guy has a rep cares more for his ideas then his troops

[Adsos Letter]

3. One might also say...*cough* ...FUBAR...*cough*

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I'm not a military mind, BOSS, but I see it pretty much the way you do.

[hobbit709]

5. Sounds right to me

Numbnuts couldn't find a "real" general. I'm waiting for him to resurrect Custer or Fetterman.

[BobRossi]

6. Future bus underside inspector.

Fall-guy in waiting.

[Adelante]

7. I was wondering this morning how it worked

"three star general in charge of four star generals"

[BOSSHOG]

11. This cannot possibly fall into the realm of positional authority

where an enlisted gate guard has authority over his drunken skipper who is trying to drive through the main gate. 3-Star in charge of 4-Stars, the chain of command bush's way. Maybe some brilliant military strategist from free republic could jump in here and splain it to me. And, if that ain't the way it is then what's the point of the appointment?

[MADem]

14. Here's what I think.

It's MAY. Anyone who's retiring (and someone needs to go, to give this guy the slot) isn't gonna do it until they hit a milestone, either that, or they do it in winter to take advantage of the January pay raises. No one wants to do it in summer--ever done a retirement ceremony at the Navy Yard in August? Egggh!

How many four stars are floating around who've done the five years in grade, forty in service? Also, there has to be a hoop or three jumped through before this new billet can be designated a four star slot. This is pretty accurate info, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_four-star_officers I don't know how the Monkey's 'special appointments' in excess of stated limits have squared with his 'mission accomplished/major combat operations have ended'BS, but it could be he's afraid to go to the Congress with this request/demand (understandable, given how much of a fuckup he's made of this war). The Senate DOES have to confirm, after all.

I think it could also be that he can't get anyone to leave in a hurry, who wouldn't BITCH like hell--and perhaps trash the war--if they were shoved aside too soon. He's probably already told some four star to vacate so this guy can have the slot (as we know, the number of flag/general officers, and their ranks, are Congressionally limited) but that guy doesn't want to leave before the kids get out of school, they have their summer vacation, he can use up all of that BigWig leave you tend to get (hell, even deployed regular folks every now and again have the 'big sixty' or even, when they give authority to carry it over, the big ninety, to burn) and, he can sashay around using up all that transition time they're handing out nowadays.

The only other solution is if a four star dies in their sleep.

Then a slot opens up, toute suite!

Hey, speak of the devil...some wingnut is talking about this on GE-MSNBC....

[BOSSHOG]

15. "Dies in their sleep"

I suspect rove has already thought of that. Plenty of retirement ceremonies in New Orleans in the summer time. Toot sweat. Went to one two weeks ago in Belle Chasse. One of my "old" Sailors retired, all I had to do was sit and look good. He did embarrass me though; in a very nice way.

[Ferret Annica]

8. Flag officers usually have two ranks...

... their permanent rank and stars can be added to reflect their job slot. I imagine he is going to pin on an additional star that won't become permanent and give his retirement a boost if he doesn't succeed at his job.

Considering this job is similar to being a traffic cop in an insane asylum, I doubt he will get any career enhancement from it.

[pwb]

9. why did he go up the middle in Iraq and leave our flanks exposed?

they are chicken-hawks who know nothing about war.

[frogcycle]

10. self-delete

[FrenchieCat]

12. Scary to see that the best military minds are on telling Bush that his strategy is wrong......

While less than experienced Generals are leading the way.

But that's typical Bush; incompentence to the max........always.

[BOSSHOG]

13. He's consistent

Instead of reviewing all the Generals who turned him down, he might have thought maybe this position isn't a good idea after all, maybe I should do something different. fuck no, that might make him look like some intellectual hippie or something. No changing that fucking mind. We'll get a war czar no matter how far down the chain of command I have to go because by gawd I said I would.

[sanskritwarrior]

16. It's not that Uncommon for a junior officer

to be placed in a senior position until that persons promotion.

I'm and E-7 there is a 1SGT spot open in my battalion and they offered it to me, I prefer my position now so I turned it down.

Also our Brigade is getting a new Brigade commander (full bird Colonel) except right now he is a LT COL. he is actually outranked by the S-3 and the XO who are just waiting for other commands to open up as both of them were recently promoted to Full Bird. So for about 4 months a LTC will be in charge of 2 Full Bird's until his promotion comes in and their commands open up..........It is fairly common.....