Mike Milhouse Huckabee's "Peace With Honor" Snake-Oil

Samuel Johnson once described patriotism as the last refuge of scoundrels. If he had seen the recent GOP candidate’s debate, he might have put “honor” in the same category."We've got a responsibility to the honor of this country,” Mike Huckabee lectured to Ron Paul, “and the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor they deserve."

Huckabee was following in a long and dubious tradition of American politics. Those who praised him so uncritically would do well to remember the story of another Republican politician who tried the same thing in 1968.

Using Huckabee's current modus operandi, Richard Nixon successfully smacked down the Ron Pauls of his generation by touting “peace with honor, rather than retreat and defeat.” After winning the election, he turned down the chance to have a peace treaty for rapid American withdrawal. It would not bring an “honorable peace” he said.

But in 1973 Nixon signed a treaty that had essentially the same terms as the one he had shunned in 1969. In the meantime, of course, more than twenty thousand Americans had died needlessly, all of the sake of “honor.” It would be a tragedy if the American people in 2008 were gullible enough to be buy this this snake-oil a second time.