Do the troops deserve or require unquestioning fealty in service of their mission? McCain argued something of that nature in thesis written just after release from Vietnamese prison, postulating that the reason he and those like him survived the ordeal was because they believed in the mission and had faith in their cause while those who capitulated to their captors no longer believed in the war nor the principles that put them in harms way. Liberals have objected to McCain's thesis.
Now, on the surface of it Liberal complaints seem reasonable - you certainly don't want the military running around untethered, free from oversight or objective analysis or public control: that would certainly be contrary to democratic principles, not to mention the constitution. Yet - there is an unreasonable constituent to a military ethos - hell, the entire command structure is based in large part on unquestioning fealty. And so? Obviously a delicate balance must exist and be maintained between a society and the military entrusted with protecting and preserving the rights and desires that define that society - which suggests to me that McCain is more right than he is wrong and liberals more wrong than they are right, insomuch that McCain seems to understand that there's an irrational component to the effective projection of power and liberals I think are not at all comfortable with that.
Which brings me to an interview Obama did with the Wall Street Journal regarding his views on the economy. What struck me was how reasonable and evenhanded he sounded, how educated he seemed, how open to suggestions he was without ever really getting into specifics on anything - and I realised this is why the educated class likes him so: they want to believe that their ideas matter and that the world is amenable to reason: avarice, lust, violence, ignorance - war - all those things threaten the world they want to believe in whereas Obama's dulcet tones makes it seem possible. No doubt why pampered youth clamour for him as well - he makes it all sound so sweet.
