MSNBC and WP consider Joint Chiefs part of administration.

[harlinchi]

--from this MSNBC article:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16275630/

I always thought our military was and is separate from political entanglements. I understand that it is thought to generally supportive of the GOP; I dispute that notion but I understand that many believe it.

When two major media outlets assert that the 'Administration is split on more Iraqi troop levels" and, in support, state that the White House differs from the Joint Chiefs as in "...with White House officials aggressively promoting the concept over the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then those media outlets are misinforming about the issue. The question at hand is whether a 'surge' in troop levels would be useful in Iraq. The civilian officials in the White House say yes while the career military officials say no.

This is not an intra-administration squabble. This is a question where civilians who never served seek to educate generals and admirals who have served and are serving. Making it appear as if the Secretary Education disagrees with the Secretary of Health and Human Services trivializes what would accurately be seen as a civilian group (who either did not serve or did not fully meet their military obligations)/ military group (who each have chests full of testaments to their service) dust-up.

Let's call a spade a spade, so to speak.

[LynnTheDem]

1. And bush thinks he's commander in chief over we civilians.

He ain't.

But shhhh...don't tell bush! It's a heckuva lot easier being a little tinpot dictator.

[Tanuki]

3. That's nothing, Mike Wallace thinks * is commander-in chief

of the "free world"! He said so.:crazy:

[LynnTheDem]

6. And Mike Wallace is a MFing rightwingnut idiot

And as such, thinks a lot of incredibly deeply stupid things.

[Clark2008]

7. I thought that was Chris Wallace.

Mike's the father, isn't he?

[LynnTheDem]

8. You're right, it's Chris, not Mike.

So was it Mike who said this stupid bullshit, or Chris?

Chris saying it would be typical of a MFing stupid rightwingnut, but not of Mike!

[Tanuki]

9. No, it was most definitely MIKE Wallace, in his interview with

Ahmadinejad, a couple of months ago. I saw it on TV at the time and was flabbergasted.

[SteppingRazor]

2. This article's fine, I think....

The Joint Chiefs are a part of the Department of Defense, which is a part of the administration. So it's not inaccurate to say the administration is split. And it's not a Republican/Democratic thing. If it were a Democratic administration, one could still call the Joint Chiefs part of the administration. The Joint Chiefs are, after all, appointed by the president.

[harlinchi]

5. I know the SEC DEF is an administration member and DOD is under their...

...perview but I thought the members serve for specific terms and were disconnected from the president in some formalized way. I guess my problems was with the impression that this is all just an all-in-the-family sort of thing. Thanks for the info!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. They're Presidential appointees.

That's as "administration" as it gets.