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Friday, September 08, 2006

Tough vs. Smart

It's easy to talk to tough. Ann Coulter is more than willing to lead the way. Bush seems intent on following the "tough" path through the rest of his Presidency:

Many of the harsh interrogation techniques repudiated by the Pentagon on Wednesday would be made lawful by legislation put forward the same day by the Bush administration. And the courts would be forbidden from intervening.
...Legal experts say it adds up to an apparently unique interpretation of the Geneva Conventions, one that could allow C.I.A. operatives and others to use many of the very techniques disavowed by the Pentagon, including stress positions, sleep deprivation and extreme temperatures.

(Via Political Animal)

We need toughness in our leaders. We need the willingness to make hard choices. We need the willingness to make terrible sacrifices for the greater good.

But Bush has turned toughness into caricature. It's toughness to exclusion of all else. Toughness to the exclusion of patience, of fairness, of wisdom. We need all these qualities in our leaders. We need men and women who understand that the toughest kid on the block wins a lot of fights without ever winning anything that matters.

1 Comments:

If the US ignores the proscriptions of the Geneva Convention in the treatment of prisoners, then it becomes very difficult to make a convincing case that American soldiers who are captured should not be treated likewise. If I had a son or daughter of eligible age, I would do everything possible to keep them out of the service. It will be open season on US POWs.
Does Bush have a brain at all?

By Anonymous, at 12:32 PM