Civilians in the military?

I'm still trying to figure out what Senator Joe Biden meant here. In reference to the story in my last post about the Guard going to the border, he said:

"We have stretched these men and women so thin, so thin, because of the bad mistakes done by the civilians in the military here, that I wonder how they're going to be able to do it," Biden said, also on ABC.

What? I'm confused. Who are these civilians? It could possibly be targeting Bush, but who else? The generals making the bulk of the decisions in the military aren't civilians. He could be talking about people like Donald Rumsfeld and others in the Department of Defense. They may be civilians, but are they in the military?

I have no military experience, which makes me a bit confused as to what he means.

Of course, Biden has no military experience either. He's been a U.S. Senator for 34 years - more than half his life. You have to be 30 to be a U.S. Senator. He was elected at the age of 29, but turned 30 just one month and 14 days before being sworn in. Previous to his career in the Senate he was a lawyer for 4 years.

I'm guessing he's not a military expert either.

Isaac Weix: assembly candidate, Black Ghost

I was at a fundraiser last night for my candidate, which was well-attended.

Isaac Weix was there. He just officially announced Monday that he’s running for the assembly seat being vacated by Andy Lamb in Wisconsin's 29th district.

He is also a staff sergeant with the Marine Reserves. After leaving the Marines, he was called back to go to Iraq. He served in the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.

I was just talking to someone who was able to spend quite a bit of time with Isaac last night listening to his war stories. I’ll leave out most of the details and let you talk to him yourself. Besides, some of them aren’t appropriate for this forum anyway. War is gruesome.

The story that I liked was the one about how they went on a number of their missions. They had a route they’d patrol every night in the area in which they were stationed. They were often out for the purpose of detaining insurgents.

Someone was bright enough to recognize that every soldier who died was killed by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) while in a Humvee. They decided to try walking.

They’d leave at night and walk the four miles (or whatever the distance) to their destination. Upon arriving in the early hours of the morning, they’d make their arrests. They’d then return to base, walking the entire way.

Not one man in this platoon was killed while they were in Iraq. Al Jazeera nicknamed them the “Black Ghosts.” The Marines even made a badge with the “Black Ghost” on it for their platoon.

Pretty cool stuff.