Tom Ricks reports that “General Odierno’s objections to the timing of the release of a new round of photos of detainees being abused in Iraq were decisive” in Barack Obama’s decision to flip-flop. He remarks:
I wasn’t so taken aback in February when he went along with his generals and abandoned his campaign promise to withdraw a brigade a month from Iraq this year, and instead endorsed a plan that kept troop levels there pretty steady this year. But to get rolled twice — well, he must think he is running up some pretty big chits with them. I know he is trying to do the right thing but at some point he is going to have to say, My way or the highway.
I think you can probably put slow-walking change on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the same box. But is Obama really going to have to say something like that at some point? Realistically, the political damage to a Democratic President of off-the-record grousing by the brass could be large. With major health care and energy reforms live in congress, I think generals will be getting things “their way” for a while yet.
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