Thursday, December 22, 2005

Tents and Boots

Harsh criticism of the war that seems unrelated to reality may be the result of perceived personal insult rather than any higher moral authority or strategic insight. As petty as this is, it must be addressed as a real drag on war support.

Victor Hanson writes (via Real Clear Politics) that it may be better to stroke the egos of such potential critics by bringing them on board for consultations:

We must never forget age-old considerations such as pride, honor and status. Washington is a Darwinian place where the ambitious arrive, leaving friends, family and birthplace behind to calibrate their new self-worth by the degree to which they are considered important — and needed.

So, next time, it might be wiser to give a holler to those like a brooding John Murtha, Richard Clarke or Wesley Clarke — even if their advice would probably be unsound. No Cabinet job necessary — just an invite to come down to schmooze at the White House rather than having them scream at it from the outside.

As a learned professor, he puts this much more nicely than a couple of cruder pieces of advice that say the same thing:

Better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in--even though they couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

Probably sound advice.