In the light of the drum beat getting louder I find the following words of John Kenneth Galbraith chillingly relevant. Here he is observing the Kennedy White house during the Cuban missile crisis:
“When I did have time to worry … it was about the peculiar dynamics of the White House crisis meeting. This has the truly terrible tendency always to favour the most reckless position, for that is the position that requires the least amount of courage. The man who says, ‘let’s move in with all we have and to hell with the consequences’ will get applause and he knows it. In reality he’s a coward who knows that in urging more deliberate policy he will invite the disapprobation of his colleagues or later be accused of advocating a policy of weakness. Normally, also, he is aided by his inability to foresee, or even to imagine, the consequences of the action he advocates. In contrast, the man who calls for caution, a close assessment of consequences, an effort to understand the opposing point of view and who proposes concessions, must have great courage. He is a real hero and rare.”
“Neither at the time nor after did I think the Missile Crisis the great and successful episode in our history it was thought by some. It showed on the contrary how fragile, almost negligible, is the issue of our existence when it passes under the control of domestic political exigency”