Obama's decision to grant the generals' request for Afghanistan should come as no surprise. William R. Polk on how the Pentagon came to run Washington.
William R. Polk served in the Kennedy administration as the member of the Policy Planning Council responsible for the Middle East and Western Asia. Later he was professor of history at the University of Chicago and president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. His latest books are Violent Politics and Understanding Iran. His Web site is www.williampolk.com.