As he ordered a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in the movie, “Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, “ Gen. Jack D. Ripper expressed his view of civilian leadership of the military: “Politicians have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

Hardly a day has gone by without one of the Republican presidential candidates complaining that President Obama “doesn’t listen to the commanders on the ground” – and promising to “change that on Day 1!”Article II of the Constitution establishes the president as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. By offering to defer to military commanders, these statesmen are telling voters in advance that there is an important part of the president’s job they plan to delegate.

There’s no doubt that the United States has the most professional military officer corps in the world, and certainly the one with the most combat experience. But, while being on the ground may provide for an understanding of local circumstances, it does not necessarily offer insight into what is best for the nation’s long-range interests. Hopefully, we choose our presidents in part because of how they will see the bigger picture.

It’s true that strategic decisions of a President Sarah Palin or a Rick Perry might reasonably be viewed with concern, but to violate the American constitutional tradition of civilian control is to invite the eventual loss of democracy.

The quality of many of our presidents can be assessed by their mastery and control of generals. Abraham Lincoln regularly dismissed military commanders until he found talent and obedience to his will. When MacArthur insisted on attacking the China-Korea border and advocated the use of nuclear weapons, Harry Truman fired him. America trembles to read of the generals during the Cuban missile crisis who were urging John Kennedy to attack that small island nation 90 miles from Florida. Had Kennedy listened to them, Americans would almost certainly have found themselves fighting for space in radiation shelters as the world lit up. (Kennedy also told his admirals where and how to intercept Soviet ships bound for Cuba – and later fired the chief of the Navy.)

Lyndon Johnson, a southerner steeped in the Texas A & M-Robert E. Lee tradition of military veneration, listened to the generals “on the ground” year after year as they called for more! more! men – a presidential lack of decision-making that cost the lives of over 50,000 young Americans and hundreds of thousands of southeast Asians, all to no purpose.

The comparison between the Bushes is striking. By keeping a tight rein on the attack dogs, the first George invaded Kuwait in a campaign remarkable for its low cost and success, while the second George deferred to “the generals” who preferred a strategy of “shock and awe” – an operation in which Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were not primary objectives. This was a clear-cut case of a presidential deference to the military for which the United States has paid – and for generations will continue to pay – a very high price in blood and treasure.

Barack Obama has, to some extent, returned to the tradition of some earlier presidents; he not only fired his commander in Afghanistan, he also overrode the military leadership’s recommendation about how to attack bin Laden’s compound and, against the cries of various Republican space cadets in Congress (who are often mouthpieces for the military/industrial complex), he has taken the nation’s young men and women out of Iraq.

The presidential oath of office should include Clemenceau’s dictum: “War is too important to be left to the generals.”

Devil’s Dictionary quote:

Vote: the instrument and symbol of a free man’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.

Rodney Quinn, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, is a former professor of national strategy in the Armed Forces Staff College. He lives in Westbrook and can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.