The military is trying to tell us something. Ignore the propaganda from their leaders, our soldiers and their families have some very real questions about the war.

This needs immediate pushback from the White House. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen announced — to a town hall of his troops! — that he’s very happy with the compromise working its way through Congress today, since it gives the senior military leaders the final say in whether it is implemented. Do you understand now why I’ve called this a sham since it surfaced earlier this week?

General McChrystal’s “new strategy” has been leaked to press in what looks to me like a continued effort to box in the President on troop increases. Here’s the core of the document:

The New Strategy: Focus on the Population

…To accomplish the mission and defeat the insurgency we also require a properly resourced strategy built on four main pillars:

1. Improve effectiveness through greater partnering with ANSF. We will increase the size and accelerate the growth of the ANSF, with a radically improved partnership at every level, to improve effectiveness and prepare them to take the lead in security operations.
2. Prioritize responsive and accountable governance. We must assist in improving governance at all levels through both formal and traditional mechanisms.
3. Gain the initiative. Our first imperative, in a series of operational stages, is to gain the initiative and reverse the insurgency’s momentum.
4. Focus resources. We will prioritize available resources to those critical areas where vulnerable populations are most threatened.

The first two pillars seem to have been written while someone was smoking hashish. Let’s take them one at a time.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff still doesn’t get it.