So Barack Obama has repeated his promise to be out of Iraq by August 31.

Note that this involves a lot of weasel words, the core phrase being, “America’s combat mission in Iraq would end.”

That doesn’t mean that there won’t be soldiers there, and that they won’t be shot at, but rather that they are providing “Training and Logistical Support.”

Shades of American advisers in Vietnam.

I don’t think that Obama wants to stay, but he does not have the strength to tell the Pentagon to get the F%$# out and shut the F%$# up, and because the generals still want a little war, because it’s good for careers, and because a real peace dividend would interfere with their consulting gigs in retirement.

I am not suggesting that the Pentagon is unpatriotic, any more than I would suggest that the telemarketing industry is, but they view their benefit to be an independent good for the nation, which does not serve the nation.

This is why robust civilian control of the military is essential for a civil society.

I may be wrong in my prediction, I am wrong more often than not, but I fear that I am right.