Senator Obama this week continued to refine his position on the Iraq war, saying that he would call in the "joint chief of staff" and ask them to end the war. Whether the war should be ended immedately is a separate issue. But the manner in which Obama is going about this speaks volumes about his ignorance regarding our military command structure.

First off, any candidate aspiring to be the commander in cheif of our armed services should know that each branch of the military has it's own chief of staff, thus making "chiefS of staff" plural. Hence the word "joint".

Admittedly, that is a cheap shot and mundane detail. The real point here is that the joint chiefs of staff are not responsible for combat strategy during wartime. That duty lies with secretary of each department. Mr. Obama fails to realize that each branch of our military essentially has two separate heirarchies; one career military and one civilian. The members of the JCS are career military; they advise the President; the President does not advise them.

The Iraq war, and Mr. Obama's position on it are one issue. However, ignorance about the structure of our military is inexcusable. How can the commander in chief of our military not be familiar with the chain of command? Obama has proven once again the degree to which his inexperience will affect his performance.

Imagine this situation in a different context. You start at a new job as a lower-to-mid manager at your local Starbucks. After 143 days of work experience, you start to ask around your store to see about becoming the CEO. A month later, you offically announce your candidacy for the position.

This is exactly what Barack Obama did. He was inaugurated on January 4, 2005. 143 working days later, on January 17, 2007, he formed his exploratory committee. Now, that is two years, but the Senate had actually been in session for 143 days. That translates into a little over five months of work experience. With five months of leadership experience at the federal level, is Obama really qualified to be the leader of the free world?