Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Quoth Slap:Practically and semantically, I agree and think most would do so. In the politico-military context though, the issue become who decides the "how." Many moons ago, Lincoln gave Grant the authority to make those decisions; from then forward, however, that has not been the case. In the last 100 plus years in ALL western democracies, the politicians have been very firm in retaining control over the "how" decisions. I doubt that will change and as Coldstreamer says:I agree but history and indications lead me to believe that the Politicians don't know enough, generally do not want to listen to the advice of non-politicians and are prone to make decisions based on domestic political concerns rather than the true geo-political or strategic issues at hand. So I think that's unlikely to change.

I was thinking more at the level of Grand Strategy(national Policy) it should be how we harness our national resources to avoid having to go to war in the first place, If our National Policy fails, somebody tries to stop us from achieving our goals peacfully..... then do as Coldstreamer says draw a line and say this is enough and if need be we will light the big candle. However as you point out practically one should not hold your your breath that this will happen. And yes I was a wild ass Buck Sergeant