As has happened so many times throughout history, a powerful military force has decided to act on its own, ignoring the feeble government supposedly in charge of its troops -- and this time, that weak, rotten power is Washington! The Marines are planning to leave Iraq, the New York Times reported today, but they haven't bothered to tell the American government and its ostensible boss of the military, placeholder Secretary of Defense Robert "I wish I was back at Texas A&M" Gates.
Marine Corps commanders have apparently decided they'd rather be operating in Afghanistan than rotten old Iraq, so they've pretty much decided to pack up and leave. Bob Gates, in London for some reason today, basically shrugged and said the U.S. military will do whatever it wants and the civilian government in Washington is no longer in charge of anything, anywhere.
"I have heard that they were beginning to think about that and that's all that I've heard. I've seen no plan, no one's come to me with any proposals about it," Gates told reporters in London after meeting his British counterpart, Des Browne.
Jesus, really? You've heard an American military force has decided to pack up and leave the Iraq debacle, and you actually admit nobody will really tell you what's going on? Awesome. We're pretty sure this ends with General Betray-us, in a toga, stabbing Bush and Cheney on the Capitol steps.
