Nó cũng là ở cấp độ của Chủ tịch và thư ký quốc phòng, hơn là ở cấp độ của người chỉ huy chiến đấu, rằng quá trình tham vấn quốc hội và cuộc họp xảy ra. | Use of Military Force 237 the buck should stop with the president and not with the lance corporal or even the secretary of defense when the hardest legal and policy questions are presented. It is also at the level of the president and the secretary of defense rather than at the level of the combatant commander that the process of congressional consultation and briefing occurs. This in turn is an important element of constitutional process democratic legitimacy as well as a necessary step in building and sustaining public support for conflict. However the corollary is also true. With presidential decision comes direct responsibility for result. Civilian participation may also increase the political content of decision prompting officials to delay decisions or eschew tough field choices on other than military grounds. The reality is that presidents and secretaries are briefed on military operations so that command decision at the level of the commander in chief can be taken in the words of General Tommy Franks on an amazing timeline. 109 With global communication presidential decision need not cause undue delay where decisions flow directly from the president to the secretary of defense and are communicated to the combatant command often by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs . Moreover where it is not practicable to brief targets on a case-by-case basis the president can and should exercise his constitutional command function through the review of theater ROE and concepts of operation. But if not exercised with contextual forethought civilian command can negate significant . military advantages in professionalism including a . leadership corps unmatched in training ability and independent thought from combatant commander to small unit leader. And it emphasizes ground truth with decisions taken on the basis of the observations by those with eyes-on-target. Make no mistake the majority of tactical and targeting decisions are purely military decisions. In an ongoing
