An excellent Executive Order option

By Bruce Walker
web posted December 12, 2005

President Bush, according to punditry, is getting pummeled for
his policies on Iraq. Ironically, all indications are that this not
another Vietnam. The men and women in the branches of our
military service in Iraq and in Afghanistan believe strongly and
see daily good from our presence in these once tortured lands.

Our constitutional system allows wavering lines between the
different branches of government and between the federal and
state governments. There are few clear, unmistakable powers
which any one part of our federal system can exercise, and even
when those powers exist, the diffusion of accountability is so
great that, for example, no honest citizen can know who in
Congress to blame for the failure to pass a certain law.

The President of the United States, however, is Commander-in-
Chief of our armed forces. While that confers some unmistakable
powers in the conduct of military operations, it also creates an
opportunity which President Bush could and should use in as
dramatic a fashion as possible.

What is the screeching on the Left today? "Bring our boys
home!" (or rather "Bring our boys and girls home!") The casualty
lists grow and the president's popularity drops. There is a very
simple way for President Bush to use political ju-jitsu on the Jell-
O of Leftism and to demonstrate dramatically that those
Americans who see the war most closely see goodness in this
war.

President Bush should issue a simple executive order, on national
television and after having lured Nancy Pelosi and others as
close to the precipice of copperheads as possible, stating that
any military personnel currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, in
the Middle East and West Asia, or in the Indian Ocean who
wishes to have an honorable discharge from the military may
have that discharge within thirty days.

Consider the impact. Those soldiers, sailors and airmen who did
not feel that our cause was just would be allowed to go home,
with no questions asked. They would not be treated as "draft
dodgers" because all were already volunteers. Their career in the
military would end, of course, but the impact would be no
different than if they had chosen not to reenlist. Unless the
benefits, moral and financial, to serving in the military in Iraq
exceeded the costs, moral and financial, of serving in the military
in Iraq, everyone would come home.

But, of course, the overwhelming majority of troops would
choose to stay. They are a revolutionary army, much like the
revolutionary army that won independence for the United States
from Great Britain. They stay and they fight because they know
that they are doing good. They are defending their homeland
from real threats and they are liberating people from an awful
tyranny. And they, more than reporters who spend a few weeks
in comfortable digs and who do not put their lives on the line,
know what is at stake.

And what if, say, fifteen percent of the troops wished to be
honorably discharged from the military? Would that be a
catastrophe? Considering that the administration is already
considering withdrawing troops, then allowing these unhappy
troops to go first makes excellent military sense.

Great commanders have stated it countless ways, but morale is
vastly more important than numbers. The eighty-five percent who
really wanted to stay and to liberate these people would be more
effective than a current force in which eighty-five percent
believed in the mission but fifteen percent did not. The
confidence of the noble eighty-five percent would rise, and the
moral seriousness of their task in a world filled with squishy
relativism made crystal clear.

Finally, those who went home – the tiny few – would be left with
no argument as politicians running for office as "veterans."
Instead they would be civilians too timid or too selfish to stand
by their buddies. Those who stayed, particularly as it become
more apparent, as it would after this executive order, that
democracy and liberty had won a great victory, would become
very attractive political candidates.

This is something that the President of the United States could
do, and could do easily. Even if Leftists found some technical
objection, raising that objection would make them look
ridiculous: Congress could be called into special session to enact
a statute specifically allowing President Bush to do this, and who
would vote against it (and why?)

When fighting a profoundly moral war, as we are, sometimes it
helps to draw hard moral lines. An executive order letting anyone
who wishes to resign to resign is just such a moral hard line.

Bruce Walker is a senior writer with Enter Stage Right. He is
also a frequent contributor to The Pragmatist and The Common
Conservative.

Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com