i always thought he should not, even though he’s the CIC.
He’s still a civilian, and civilians don’t even salute the flag;
we put our hands over our hearts.
Just wondering.
Curiously you didn’t feel the need to ask this question a month ago about the CIC…
In the US, military personnel salute the civilian leadership. If said leadership doesn’t salute back, they’re gonna look kinda like jerks.
Since Obama is not the first POTUS or CIC and the military is not a new establishment, I have to assume, like everything else, the traditions and protocols for who salutes who are already well established and I see no need to change them.
Reagan is dead, let this particular idiocy die with him.
You think I’m a Bushie? :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
Au contraire!
What’s more, I am a big Obama booster.
I used to grind my teeth whenever I saw W’s snappy
military salutes. But I chose to abide by GD rules and
refrain from political pronouncements.
On the merits, I’m indifferent.
Politically, this is a hornet’s nest Obama is thankfully wise enough to avoid.
You’re probably right.
The GOP would howl if Obama didn’t salute.
Where did you get that?!?!?
The only civilian that we salute in the President. That gets debated periodically, but most don’t have heart ache with that.
I’ve seen SecDef greeted by military officers, and I’ve not seen then salute even him.
I’m pretty middle of the road when it comes to Bush, but at least he could salute. Your boy Clinton though, clearly didin’t want to salute and it showed!
Perhaps they would. However, the current POTUS (like most of his precedessors) is not a member of the military, and never has been: he is a civilian, even though he is Commander in Chief, and so should not salute.
And if not saluting was good enough for Ike…
Here’s an ex-military guy who stopped returning salutes because he knew it was
inappropriate as a civilian.
This is one of those Catch-22 things. Some people are going to say he should not do it. If he doesn’t do it THOSE SAME PEOPLE are going to say “OMG he disrespected the soldiers, they saluted him and he didn’t return it.”
Reagan started it a quarter of a century ago. I see good reasons why the president should do it and good reasons why he shouldn’t. I say Obama and the country have more important things to worry about and he should spend time worrying about those things rather than this thing.
I don’t think that he ever returned salutes as president. He sure did as an active duty Army officer. And let’s be clear about what a returned salute means - it is an acknowledgment of respect given and a return of it.
Now, custom dictates that military personnel salute the president because he is commander-in-chief. Now, Reagan had once been active duty Army, though in a rear-echelon support job in California. He thought that a salute rendered ought to be returned for the reasons I gave above and started to do so. Presidents since him have continued to do this.
I don’t mind it, myself, but I don’t think the world turns on it either.
Agreed. It’s a small matter.
I think both sides have had their say, and request the mods to close this thread
I’d agree with you if the military saluted while out of uniform. Since they don’t, it is not apporpriate for the president to return the salute while in civilian clothes. If we get him one of those Banana Republic Generalissimo outfits, then hell yeah, he should snap away.
I agree that Obama is in damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t territory.
As a military guy, I’d prefer that he return the salute, but most aren’t hard over either way. Having said that that when I see a senior military officer in civilian clothes and I salute him because I’m in uniform, they NEVER salute back.
I’ve seen civilians salute, it looks silly and its wrong, but I never felt the need to tell them that.
Clinton saluted. He got criticized by the right for doing it too. It’s a no win situation for any Democrat because either choice is spun as contempt for the military by the right.
Personally, I think that if George Washington didn’t think there was any need to return a salute, then there’s no need for any other CIC to do it. It was a lame thing for Reagan to start (especially since he spent his own “military service” making VD training films on a Hollywood backlot), but now it’s just become accepted as normal protocol. I doubt anyone’s going to end it.
I agree that it will never end. I’m as patrotic as the next guy, but that $1.98 American flag pin (that I think Nixon started) drives me nuts. But Omama took flack for not having that during the election as I recall, so he’s screwed either way.
I know that Clinton saluted. My comment was that he looked very uncomfortable doing it.