Run Away!

William S. Lind is less than impressed by the hysterics in DC a couple of weeks ago:

Two weeks ago, a small, single-engine plane inadvertently strayed into the closed air space above Washington. The result was panic. Both the White House and the Capitol were evacuated, with police shouting "Run! Run!" at fleeing staffers and visitors. Senators and Congressmen abandoned in haste the floors of their respective Houses. Various RIPs (Really Important People) were escorted to their Fuehrerbunkers. F-16s came close to shooting the Cessna down.

The whole episode would have been funny if it weren't so sad. As an historian, I could think of nothing other than the behavior of an earlier profile in courage, the Persian king Darius, at the battle of Issus. As the Roman historian Arrian described it,

The moment the Persian left went to pieces under Alexander's attack and Darius, in his war chariot, saw that it was cut off, he incontinently fled ­ indeed, he led the race for safety . . . dropping his shield and stripping off his mantle ­ even leaving his bow in the war-chariot ­ he leapt upon a horse and rode for his life.

Not surprisingly, Darius's army was less than keen to fight to the death for its illustrious leader. As one British officer said, commenting on U.S. Marines' love of running for exercise, "We prefer our officers not to run. It can discourage the troops."

I suspect that more than a few of our soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, enjoying as they do a daily diet of IEDs, ambushes and mortarings, were less than amused at watching Washington flee from a flea.

Lind sees this ultimately as part and parcel of a Beltway elite that "draws a distinction between itself and the rest of the country." And, as AmericaBlog points out, they even draw a distinction within the Beltway--a distinction that, in its essence, is perfectly willing to sacrifice those who don't make the grade. Lind concludes:

At some point, that gap may grow wide enough to swallow the state itself. Kings who become cabbages, like Darius, end up history's losers.

Point made.