The "Commander-in-Chief"

From Greenwald, an invaluable recap of the significance of the constant and consitutionally innacurate references to Bush as the "Commander-in-Chief".

He links to an equally insightful Op-Ed by Garry Wills in today's NYT, making the related argument that, since the beginning of the cold war, American politics has become increasingly 'militarized', and the President has subtly metamorphosed from a public servant to a military commander. As the former he is answerable to his employers (we the people); as the latter, we are his subordinates and are expected to follow his commands without question.

Wills mentions as one example of this shift a seemingly inconseqential detail of protocol most of us have glimpsed on TV -- that whenever the President disembarks from the presidential helicopter after a journey (in wartime or peacetime), he is greeted by the salute of a Marine, which he returns. This practice was apparently initiated by Reagan.