Morale of the Story

The argument that one ought not to criticize an ongoing war effort for fear of sapping troop morale would be dangerous and undemocratic even if it were true. But as a former Marine pilot and Fox News correspondent observes in the NY Times today, the factual premise isn't terribly plausible either, unless you imagine soldiers as hothouse flowers wilting at a word from John Kerry. Mostly, as the author suggests, morale problems seem to be stemming from the situation on the ground, which troops are perfectly capable of assessing without help from politicians thousands of miles away. I guess soldiers are members of those "reality based communities" I keep hearing about.