Hurting Morale

Here's a popular Conservative argument. Criticism of the war hurts the morale of the troops. The decreased morale causes the troops to be less effective. Hence, criticism of the war causes the troops to be less effective. Only in politics could someone make this argument with a straight face. But not only do wingnuts seriously make this argument, a decent number of Americans believe it. To show how ridiculous this argument is, let's apply it to sports.

Sports fans constantly criticize their favorite teams. By the above logic, this criticism hurts the morale of the players. Since the players have low morale, they play bad. Hence, when fans criticize their favorite team they are causing them to play worse. See how ridiculous this argument is. Why do we ever fire coaches or general managers? Why are players ever traded? It's up to the fans - those who are most positive will boost the morale of their players and cause them to play well enough to win.

I don't think it's a stretch to equate the administration with sports owners and the commanders with a coach. So once sports reporters start blaming fans instead of the owners, GM, or coach, I'll agree with the wingnuts that war critics are to blame while the administration is blameless.