Pat Dollard | Young Americans

I don’t know man, if the Messiah ain’t worried about it, why should I be?

Marine Corps Times:

The nation’s top military officer didn’t name names, or political parties.

But Adm. Mike Mullen said Thursday that with a presidential election coming up, he worries that a rapid withdrawal from Iraq by the next president, “whoever he or she might be,” would reverse recent security and political gains made within the still-struggling country.

“I do worry about a rapid withdrawal … in a situation that wouldn’t call for that in terms of the conditions on the ground, which would then … basically turn around the gains that we have achieved, and struggled to achieve, and turn them around overnight,” Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told reporters following an “all hands call” meeting in the Pentagon basement with several hundred members of his Joint Staff.

Mullen declined to describe in detail his idea of a “rapid withdrawal,” other than to call it “a withdrawal which would be so fast that it … really leave us in a chaotic situation. The gains that we’ve achieved would be lost.”

At the same time, Mullen, whose tenure as the president’s top military adviser will carry over into the new administration, stressed that the military must gear up for change and for lending the new administration its undivided support.

“We need to be prepared across the board for what a new president will bring,” Mullen told. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be predictive of who that would be. Nor would I be specifically predictive of what decisions … that that individual may make. But there’s a long time between now and the 20th of January of next year.

“When our new president comes in, I’ll get my orders and we’ll carry ‘em out,” Mullen said.

Both Democratic candidates for president have called for a rapid withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says she would “immediately start bringing our troops home.”

She would order a withdrawal plan to be drawn up within 60 days of taking office, simultaneously convening a “regional stabilization group” of key allies, other global powers and neighboring countries that would work to support Iraq’s future viability.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., says he also would begin an immediate withdrawal, with a goal of one to two combat brigades each month and total withdrawal within 16 months. He would also launch “the most aggressive diplomatic effort in recent American history” that would seek the same sort of help from a similar group of nations to stabilize and secure Iraq.

Likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has no such plans. McCain says he would add more U.S. troops, implement a more robust counterinsurgency strategy, accelerate political and economic reconstruction and bring international pressure on Syria and Iran to end what he says is their continuing tacit as well as active support for militant groups within Iraq.

McCain also told a town hall meeting in early January that staying in Iraq for 100 years “would be fine with me, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.”

In his earlier remarks before the Joint Staff, Mullen underlined his support of civilian control of the military, saying that he considers neutral and strong support for administration policies and goals to be a “bedrock” principle.

“That ties to a really important point, which is continuing to retain the trust and confidence not just of our leaders, but of the American people,” Mullen said. “We are very highly regarded by this country. That’s a very specific treasure, and we need to retain that.

“We need to continue to be the solid foundation, totally apolitical in our view, totally supportive of the president of the United States, whoever he or she might be in the future,” Mullen said. “And as is the case right now, we take our orders from them and we march off.”

With a new administration, Mullen said, “things will change. And that’s not all bad. … We need to be prepared for that.”