A Suggestion for Senator Obama

Here are my thoughts to assist Senator Obama in his effort to be elected President.

McCain is a trained and experienced military officer. When he speaks on military issues, he has credibility, even when he is being disingenuous, as he often is when speaking on the war in Iraq. Obama has few military credentials so when he speaks on military matters, such as setting a time table for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, he is easily attacked as not knowing what he is talking about.
Obama needs a tool, an argument, that offsets his lack of military credibility. I believe that Obama should publish a military mission statement for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that provides a frame of reference and a foundation for all his discussion of military matters.
I’ll explain. Planning of a military operation begins with a statement of the mission: what the operation is to accomplish. The initial mission underlying our invasion of Iraq was to dispose Saddam Husain. That mission was completed in a matter of weeks. In fact Bush flew onto a carrier and held photo op on the basis of Mission Accomplished.
When the troops did not pull out of Iraq, I, and I’m sure thousands of others who understand how military operations are planned, waited to learn of the new mission. No mission statement was ever released to the press. Through news of what was happening in Iraq, we learned of what must be bits and pieces of a mission statement. Only discrete operational elements of the overall mission have been available. Such as the search for weapons of mass destruction, halting of sectarian violence, searching out and destroying Al Qaeda terrorists, putting down so-called insurgents, rebuilding the infrastructure, installing a democratic government, Etc.
What I’m getting at is, that the Administration and the high ranking military officers who report to the President have been, in my opinion, very careful to neither publish nor discuss our nation’s mission in Iraq for the simple reason that if the true mission statement was made public, the nation would know the mission is so broad that it is impossible to accomplish within any reasonable time frame and budget.
I assume Obama’s campaign has access to at least one three of four star general who can advise in the preparation of the mission statement that Obama will implement when he is president. With publication of such a mission statement, Obama’s position on military matters, such as a deadline for withdrawing our troops, is founded on a public document. Also when attacked, Obama can challenge McCain to publish the Bush mission statement, that they have hidden for so long.