Covering Conservatives Pt. I

From a new Dartmouth-related blog, "Dartmouth Traditions," by a Dartmouth '60, George W. Potts (what a fine name—sounds like an extra from a Frank Capra film or something):

When I was a freshman (in the late 1950’s) and lived in Wheeler Hall facing the green [sic]. I greatly enjoyed, through an opened window, the fraternities rehearsing for “Hums” on the steps of Dartmouth Hall on those ever-warming spring evenings. And finally, during Green Key weekend, would come the full-blown Hums competition with every available member of each fraternity dressed in black shoes, black chinos and white shirts singing their hearts out just for the honor of winning this age-old competition. And there were some spine-tingling performances as well-harmonized groups sang a capella many of the old-time pop classics, Dartmouth favorites, and an occasional new composition. As I remember it, the judging was based on percentage participation, song selection, group appearance, and quality of performance.

Because College is really only about having a hot pair of black chinos and singing a capella. I don't believe everyone that used to attend Dartmouth attaches as much faux gravitas to overly sentimentalized tripe like this, but if this is Old Dartmouth, I'm glad it's dead.

Also new in the Dartmouth blogosphere is, New Hampshire Green, which, if you enjoy reading knee-jerk conservative rants like this:

What is it about a Monday morning quarterback that wants to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? I would have loved it more if he [Victor Davis Hanson, author of a mediocre book about the Peloponnesian War] had expounded about how truly democratic states have a hard time fighting wars because they get the politicians meddling around in battlefield affairs. Effortlessly this topic transcends to our country with our own wars and history where FDR’s government operated more like an oligarchy and today we operate more like a true democracy where everyone – and I mean everyone – has their opinion about military affairs.

I hate to say it, but in the context of history, how is the War on Terror not similar to Arginusae? I would say the wars to overthrow the Taliban and Saddam were conducted with historically low casualties and challenging objectives. The Soviets couldn’t take Afghanistan. The Iraqi army was the 4th largest in the world before the gulf war and many were battle-hardened veterans from the Iraq-Iran war. The overthrow of the Taliban and Saddam have been military victories on an epic scale, but our society somehow feels that we’ve been defeated. Athens also felt as though it had been defeated (even though Arginusae was a much needed victory) and kept on believing in defeat until they really did lose everything. I can just see the NY Times in Athens after their walls were being torn down with headlines proclaiming: “We told you so: Athens’ military really does suck, and Rumsfeld should have been executed.”

Everyone has their opinion about military affairs, including you, NH Green, even when they disagree with the folks running the war, as you now do with Robert Gates. That's why we have this thing called democracy, which you apparently disdain. What a great conservative.