Profile in courage: Douglas J. Feith

Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith’s announcement Wednesday that he would return to private life brings to a close four distinguished, but grueling, years at the forefront of the War on Terror. It offers an occasion both to salute this outstanding public servant and to castigate his ever-voluble critics.

Most of the reportage on Secretary Feith’s departure this summer has dredged up various unsubstantiated charges that have been made against Mr. Feith and/or his subordinates. The fact that no credible evidence has yet been offered to back up any of these transparent attempts at character assassination for political purposes – principally, mounting an oblique attack on President Bush in the run-up to last November’s elections – reflects even less credit on those who persist in repeating them in the media than it does on those who recklessly alleged them in the first place.

Perhaps even more troubling has been the suggestion that Mr. Feith is motivated in his public policy role by a dark and malevolent ideology. Specifically, he is said to be "a neoconservative" and that explains policy predilections that led the Nation to war with Iraq on false pretenses and in a poorly planned fashion.

It is always easier to repeat such nonsense than to examine with care the actual evidence of the thinking of a person like Douglas Feith. This is particularly egregious since, as is generally true of men and women of his formidable intellectual capacity and policy outlook, Mr. Feith has a voluminous record by which his true thinking can be assessed.

Anyone who wishes to understand the actual, extraordinary caliber of this man – and the loss to the country represented by his departure from public service – is invited to peruse his record of profoundly thoughtful, well-reasoned and brilliantly articulated writings. And note will be taken of those who, by their persistent refusal to examine such materials, signal a laziness, indifference to the truth and/or partisanship that is truly worthy of criticism, if not contempt.