Loyalty.

This op-ed at the AJC looks like it was written for Putz.

Money passage:

Even now, top Republican leaders who know deep in their hearts that our Iraq policy has failed are choosing to keep that wisdom quiet, lest it conflict with their party's campaign strategy of depicting the Democrats as weak on national security. But watch and listen: After November, they will begin to voice those doubts in no uncertain terms.

But in the meantime, their continued silence delays the change of course that they know is necessary, even if that delay may cost the lives of more American kids.

Calls of national loyalty have also been used as a cudgel against the U.S. media, which has been accused by the administration and others of failing to support the war in Iraq and even of undermining American soldiers there. Journalists were expected by some to join the White House in pretending that all was going well in Iraq — hey, look at all of those freshly painted schoolhouses — while ignoring the growing violence.

As it turns out, the true unpatriotic act — the real act of disloyalty — was committed by those who tried to paint a falsely optimistic picture for the American people, who tried to blind them to the reality of what was happening in Iraq. Their loyalty to a man and a party and an ideology trumped their loyalties to the truth and to the country.

And now, of course, it has all come crashing down. The tragedy in Iraq has once again taught us the dangers of trying to live in HappyLand, of trying too hard to believe what we want to believe. Reality exists independently of illusion, and in time it demands to be respected.

Indeed.