In my perfect world, we’d have a comprehensive survey done at the end of each soldier’s tour in Iraq, confidentiality assured. In my days as a management consultant we did that kind of thing often, and the “collected wisdom” was a powerful thing.

A summarization would be done, and published, on a regular basis. The details and precise data would go to policy-makers. Too much information for the “enemy” to see, you say? Well, they see it now in the form of op-ed pieces, blog entries, and the like.

…the mawkish, weepy, super-patriots of the right with their ‘love-em-to-death’ embrace of all things military…But that is not the right’s narrative. The right’s storyline is that the man in uniform must support the mission, and always, and in every case, be right. While the critic, the skeptic, the doubter, must always, and in every case, be aiding and abetting the enemy.

Alright…

You cannot simply assume that this category of folks must be right, and that category of folks must be wrong.

Unless they are from the “right” and are pro-war, then you can steryotype them all into being “mawkish, weepy, super-patriots” who are themselves like “robots,” “machines,” and “cardboard cut-outs” by claiming that they all believe the narrative that the man in uniform must support the mission, and always, and in every case, be right, while the critic, the skeptic, the doubter, must always, and in every case, be aiding and abetting the enemy.