I am absolutely committed to ending the war,” Obama recently declared. “I will call my Joint Chiefs of Staff in and give them a new assignment and that is to end the war.”

I can well imagine that his supporters were pleased with this position. However, there is a small problem with this statement. His Joint Chiefs of Staff will be his military advisors not the ones who control the military’s actions.

From Wikipedia: After the 1986 reorganization of the military undertaken by the Goldwater-Nichols Act, the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have operational command of U.S. military forces. Responsibility for conducting military operations goes from the President to the Secretary of Defense directly to the commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands and thus bypasses the Joint Chiefs of Staff completely.

Now I know that in 1986 Mr. Obama was only 25 and had not even started Harvard Law School, but this again shows his and his campaign’s advisors’ lack of knowledge of military issues and how they relate to the Presidency. Worse, they don’t know what they don’t know.

As stated, ABC reported from interviews with military personnel, to leave Iraq in 16 months we can get the troops out but not the equipment. It might have been wise to consult with the military or even General Petraeus when he testified before congress prior to Mr. Obama setting his position in concrete. Unfortunately for him, apparently he didn’t. One could say that they don’t know what questions to even ask of the military. But I’m sure he had a good reason why he didn’t seek the military’s input and advice before he opened his mouth.