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US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a speech to the American Legion: “…[A]ny kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong… can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere.” He means, of course, that dissent is treason.

Hubris is an occupational hazard of leading large systems, which are able to accomplish as a whole goals that no single man could reach. Ten thousand men move a mountain at your command. You think, “Gee, I just moved a mountain! I have a miraculous mountain-moving power!” To the extent that Rumsfeld truly thinks that America’s goals and actions in the War on MoistureTerror are not merely right, but unquestionable, he’s suffering from hubris — maybe not suffering, actually, but he’s addled by it. He cannot take seriously any question about his vision, and the model world he lives in grows more and more remote from the messy reality.

“Moral and intellectual confusion” is not what gives rise to America’s vital debate over the conduct of Bush’s war; we’re asking moral questions, and because we’re in a morally complex situation, we’re getting a wide range of difficult answers. We’re not confused - we’re struggling with a hard problem. For Rumsfeld to suggest otherwise is insulting, and deeply anti-American. His apparent hankering for a one-party state would be embarassing if it weren’t so frightening.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has a thought-provoking (= “provoked me”) commentary on Rumsfeld’s insult to the loyalty of his political opponents. The major point I think he misses is the near inevitability of hubris when men are empowered beyond the limits of their mammal brains. It takes a constant stream of self-examination and openness to criticism to push that rock uphill, and the Secretary has shown neither philosophical inclinations nor any special eagerness to engage dissenters.

Rumsfeld again: “Those who know the truth need to speak out against these kinds of myths and distortions that are being told about our troops and about our country. America is not what’s wrong with the world.” America is not what’s wrong with the world in a general sense, but contra the Secretary it’s capable of doing wrong, and its size and strength can amplify mistakes into disasters… hell with “can,” they have. We need to live the examined national life, despite the efforts of powerful men to reduce politics to reflex.