Fuck Morale

The news that a new poll suggests most Americans agree with Bush and Cheney that criticizing the war and its prosecution damages troop morale got a lot of play, much of it along the lines found in this Washington Post writeup. Unfortunately, most of the coverage I saw misses, as the poll itself seems to have, the bigger point. (At this writing, the poll had not been posted online yet).

According to the coverage, 70% of Americans believe that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale. Why the pollsters chose to ask anyone other than the owners of said morale, I'm not quite sure. Nevertheless, let's assess what lies behind the poll: Namely, the implication that if something hurts troop morale, good Americans ought not do it.

Let's even stipulate the truth of what the poll found most Americans believe: That war criticism hurts troop morale. Our next question ought to be: So the fuck what?

I don't mean that as synonymous with, "Who gives a shit?" I mean, seriously, what are we supposed to do with the stipulated reality that dissent hurts morale? Let's break it down. There are two possibilities about the dissent:

It's accurate.
It's not accurate.

In other words, the complaining about the war is either merited or not merited. If it's merited, we shouldn't waste time worrying about whether VALID complaints about the war are hurting morale. It's like worrying that an accurate cancer diagnosis may lead to depression. Kinda misses the big picture.

So that leaves us with the scenario of inaccurate (or, at least, not wholly accurate) war criticism. Dissenters are either disingenuous, in which case I think we can agree they're not defensible, or they're sincere in their criticism. The reason -- well, one reason -- it's still not just appropriate, but imperative, for war critics to speak out, even at the risk of hurting morale, is that dissent is not merely about present conflicts, it's also about future conflicts.

Dissent is something war planners should know to anticipate. They should know that it can hurt morale. Both of these facts are supposed to compel responsible political, civilian leaders not to stifle dissent, but to render it moot by obtaining civic consensus before going to war.

The problem is not that dissent causes low morale. The problem is that poor leadership and/or planning causes dissent AND low morale. If the dissenters are, in effect, saying, "fuck morale," then so are the leaders who engendered the dissent. If the fact that dissent can have negative consequences causes us to stifle dissent, then we've removed a crucial motive future political leaders have to ensure that they only go to war with broad-based civilian support. President Bush failed to win broad-based support; much of the support he did get came through defrauding the populace. That's why dissent is so important now -- not so much to bring about change in this obstinate, unresponsive administration, but to serve as a warning to future politicians that they damn well better win Americans' WITTING support before they wage war in our name again. If we fail to voice our dissent now, we're writing a blank check for tomorrow's politicians to wage war without fear of reprisal, let alone criticism. And that will really hurt troop morale.