The Dishonorable Quarrel
May 15th, 2007
Another must-read Josh Marshall article, on a war veteran who has been criticizing the war in Iraq–and who tragically has just lost his son to it. Marshall quotes Shakespeare to make a point that I have held strongly for some time:
Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the kings subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.
In effect, those who fight and die for the King do not bear the shame or dishonor if the King’s cause proves wrong. How many men will die because the war is prolonged by those who use the honor of the dead to argue that even more should be sacrificed to a dishonorable war?