A hawk sends his son to war

And he sends a message to the Bush administration.

"There is a lot of talk these days about shaky public support for the war. That is not really the issue. Nor should cheerleading, as opposed to truth-telling, be our leaders' chief concern. If we fail in Iraq -- and I don't think we will -- it won't be because the American people lack heart, but because leaders and institutions have failed. Rather than fretting about support at home, let them show themselves dedicated to waging and winning a strange kind of war and describing it as it is, candidly and in detail. Then the American people will give them all the support they need. The scholar in me is not surprised when our leaders blunder, although the pundit in me is dismayed when they do. What the father in me expects from our leaders is, simply, the truth -- an end to happy talk and denials of error, and a seriousness equal to that of the men and women our country sends into the fight."

Marshall Whitman notes that current reports that we and the British do, despite the president's angry denials, have a plan for a sharp reduction of troops in Iraq would represent yet another lie the administration is telling regarding this war. A war that began with lies and obfuscations will likely end with the same.