You, too, make good points. But I'm not entirely sure your analogy quite fits. We The People are not a military "company". We have a volunteer army (for now; I actually see many merits in instituting either a draft or compulsory military service a la Israel, but that's another discussion), and those who chose to accept the limits on civil liberties that accompany military service, such as limits on freedom of speech, unquestionable adherence to a chain of command, etc., are free to do so. The rest of us, however, have a right to reasonable expectation of accountability by those whom we elect.

Time and again, this administration has demonstrated not only lack of accountability, but outright contempt for it. Reading the Wa. Post's series of articles a week or so ago on Cheney clearly demonstrated to me the extent to which this administration has gone to eliminate, or at least significantly obscure, the transparency and accountability our Founders wrote into the founding documents. Time and again Bush, Co. has put forth unprecedented assertions of presidential power. Signing statements, Geneva Conventions, assertions of executive privilege when the Congress asserts its constitutionally mandated role of oversight. Every justification that Bush, Co. gave to the American People for embarking on this fool's errand that we call the Iraq War has proven to be false. Not only that, but it has been further revealed that they did not just misinterpret intelligence, they actively dismissed any intelligence that didn't support their desired ends. The "available information" you refer most definitely did not support an invasion of Iraq, just ask Colin Powell. This administration had a solution to a problem that didn't exist. Therefore, any credibility that this administration had with this American Person (i.e. me) was shot to hell years ago; I give them zero benefit of the doubt at this point.

Based on the duplicitous way Bush, Co. has conducted itself over its entire presidency, you can't blame folks casting somewhat of a jaundiced eye toward the Libby commutation. As for any parallels Bush might like to see between himself and Truman, this article in Vanity Fair (http://tinyurl.com/39lfuc) puts that idea to rest fairly well.

Oh, and you're welcome ... indulge away! ;-)

Herm71

Good points...

I am not advocating a leader who completely ignores the will of the people.

However, consider this. We elect our President and our Congress so that they can know the things we cannot know and make the decisions that we don't want to make.

Now, I am moving more towards the Iraq war, rather than the Libby issue, so please forgive the tangent.

Isn't it even SLIGHTLY possible that Bush, being the commander in chief, knows more about the situation than us common citizens do?? And, that being the case, since Bush *IS* our elected representative, shouldn't we let him do the job we elected him to do??

Put another way. Postulate a scenario where you have a Company Commander who needs to make some unpopular decisions for the good of the mission. Are we, as lowly PFCs, going to take it upon ourselves to dispute the decision of the Commander, even though we are oblivious to the facts and circumstances??

Of course not. He (or she) is the commander and makes the decisions that need to be made, based on available information.

I imagine that Bush, right now, feels much like FDR did when FDR incarcerated hundreds of thousands of American Citizens who had committed no crime. Or how Truman felt when he gave the order that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians. Or how Lincoln felt when he suspended Habeas Corpus for American Citizens and jailed anyone who spoke against the war, American or no...

We do not know all the facts and circumstances of what the Bush Administration is facing. Ergo, doesn't it seem a bit premature to cast judgement without all the facts??

As I said, this is more about the Administration in general, rather than the Libby issue specifically. I appreciate you indulging me in this tangent..

Michale.....

He certainly is not swayed by popular opinion...

Kinda a GOOD quality in a leader, when you get right down to it...

Michale.....