After the departure of Donald Rumsfeld, it is no surprise that President Bush would seek to reshuffle the rest of his war cabinet. It leaves a vacancy that begs that such a void be filled wherever possible. According to the latest news, Bush will be sending Negroponte back over to State while appointing a retired admiral to fill his place; ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad will become the new ambassador to the United Nations; and his own vacancy to be filled by ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker. This all suggests a large realignment in the way that the Bush administration conducts its diplomatic policy. However, what is particularly interesting amidst all of this is that the president is also dumping his top military commanders for Iraq, Generals Abizaid and Casey.

The military can take a lot of hits from the politicians, especially the left, but on the individual level a lot of military personnel, especially in the upper echelons, are taking this move as a political move by Bush meant to put all the blame for the lack of success in Iraq on the military rather than the policies developed and pushed by the administration itself.

While the military commanders give their input for policy and develop strategies for achieving goals, the fact is that the decision for actual policy is with the civilian leadership. If they want to look for WMD, topple a dictatorship, or deploy peacekeepers to Darfur, the military cannot refuse. It must advise but ultimately figure out how to achieve such goals. Now there is a political leadership when, faced with mounting public dismay over progress in the war, is simply deflecting responsibility to one of the smartest and most professional institutions on the face of the planet.

The military can be blamed for some things. If Abizaid and Casey can be accused of not being strong and aggressive enough in executing the strategies necessary to win, that’s fine. But at this point it reflects on everyone under them as well.

Commanders and troops have had their hands tied since the very beginning of the war. They have not been able to do their job because the civilian leadership prevented them from doing so. For example, there was ample opportunity in 2004 to bring Moqtada al-Sadr to justice as it became apparent that he was a murderous thug bent on power. I was told by one AF source at the time that they had him running and jumping fences to get away as the Predator drones followed, but the order was never received nor allowed to kill him.

And again, for example, now that he is possibly the most powerful man in Iraq — posing a grave threat to the country’s stability with his militia — the military has its hands tied because the Iraqi government is not allowing it to be dismantled. Now its the Iraqi government’s sectarian political leadership that gets a say. Frankly, between that and our own leadership, how can we expect anything to be done?…

With the situation in Iraq particularly precarious right now, perhaps it would be useful to find who the blame actually belongs to and figure out why. But one place where it does not yet belong is on the men in biege camo. Perhaps we will see that success in Iraq if, while we find that long sought after political solution, we let them do what they’re trained to do. Kill the killers.