Military 'Uncertain' About Barack Obama as Commander-in-Chief

A recent poll of active-duty military members, conducted by Military Times, shows that an overwhelming majority of service members are "uncertain or pessimistic" about the abilities of President-elect Barack Obama to serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Sixty percent of respondants said that they felt that way about Obama, citing his lack of military experience as a basis for their doubts. One Marine lance corporal's comments spoke for the beliefs of the majority of respondants.

"Being that the Marine corps can be sent anywhere in the world with a snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy."

But there was another factor that contributed to skepticism about Obama among the ranks of the nations's military members, according to the results of the poll. Obama's plan for withdrawing from Iraq within 16 months of taking office was deeply unpopular. Nearly half of the respondants said that they did not support Obama's plan. Most respondants said that they favored the time frame set out in the recently agreed to Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. That agreement calls for a withdrawl of U.S. combat forces by the end of 2011. The troops expressed concern that Obama's qucker and more arbitrary time frame could jeopardize hard-won security gains in Iraq. One service member said that Obama should leave well enough alone in Iraq. "Im my mind, things were changing to the point where we could get out of there and let the Iraqis take over their own country," the soldier said. "I think he [Obama] should just pull out a little at a time." Another wondered about the security risks of the pullout itself, along with its eventual consequences.

"How are you going to safely pull combat troops out of Iraq? And if you're pulling out combat troops, who are you going to be leaving to help support what's left? What happens if Iraq falls back into chaos? Are we going to be there in five years doing the same thing over again?"

It is perhaps unsurprising that the military is aprehensive at the prospect of President-elect Obama taking control. Obama has no military experience, very little executive experience, and limited foreign policy experience to draw upon when making decisions of a military nature. In many ways, President Bush was in the same position when he took office in 2001. Some may say that Bush's inexperience caused him to make decisions that were disastrous for the troops's welfare. But the poll's respondants would disagree. More than half said chose Bush over Obama when asked which had their best interest at heart. Obama it seems has some work to do to live up to the current commander-in-chief's reputation wthin the ranks of the military.