What good do you perceive....if any.
I don't perceive any good but neither am I clear on the harm. I was just trying to understand where you were drawing the line and why you were so set on it. Thanks for the explanation.
As for your unspoken rule, I am not aware of it as you frame it. I has always been my sense, though, that once a decision has been made to go to war, you shut up about it and get with the program, or at least frame your criticisms moderately and constructively. This unwritten rule as I learned it at my mother's knee applied to everybody, not just public officials. Of course, I was also raised to give the polite golf clap, as it was referred to in an article posted earlier today, when the opposing basketball team was introduced and that it was low class to ever boo, or at the very least not before the opposition or the referees did something to really, really deserve it, so what do I know about rules? <g> Our culture is much courser now.
Re Clinton's comments, I understand your point but on a practical level, I don't see why it matters if she makes them to a foreign publication or to the NYT. That unspoken rule of yours must have predated satellite TV and the internet, back when the enemy would have no access to comments made to the NYT. Nowadays, that distinction you're making seems pointless to me. It may offend one's sense of tradition but it has no real import and is not worth getting exercised over. |
