The Warrior Ethos

The libertarian Megan McArdle has this on her blog, and it's something I've been meaning to say alongside my praise for McCain's valor, etc.:

This, I think, is why Kerry seemed so ridiculous "reporting for duty"--his political persona was about as far as you could get from the warrior ethos. McCain is the real thing. Too much of the real thing, for my taste--he seems to think that the values that guide a brigade should also guide the nation at large. This is a bad idea for the same reason that we should not be run by the codes of the Bar Association or the Hippocratic Oath.