Behaving honorably in a democracy

... Personally, I'm still hoping Obama's strategy in Afghanistan will work. But it is maddening that Congress can appropriate $33 billion more for Afghanistan without anyone asking where the funds will come from even as self-styled deficit hawks insist on blocking money for the unemployed unless it is offset by budget cuts.

And [Rep. Jim McGovern, D-MA) is right that the most disturbing line in the Rolling Stone article that got Gen. Stanley McChrystal in trouble was this observation attributed to one of his senior advisers: "If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular."

But the issue here is less about Afghanistan than about dissent in time of war. Even if Steele was just popping off, he had a right to offer his opinion without being accused of undermining our troops or "rooting for failure."

Some of our greatest leaders, from Abraham Lincoln to Robert F. Kennedy, courageously stood up against wars in their day. Steele is no Lincoln and he is no Kennedy, but as an American, he enjoys the same rights they had. "It is not enough to allow dissent," RFK said. "We must demand it." If members of Kennedy's party don't remember this, who will?...EJ Dionne