Why did he fail to speak out.......................??


"Why," Errol asks, "did you fail to speak out against the war after you left the Johnson administration?"

Here's the final deciding question on the Big Test. How will this genius of ratiocination, this master of self-exculpation, handle this one? It is incredibly suspenseful.

And then ... he punts. He just refuses to answer. "I'm not going to say anymore than I have," Mr. McNamara says. "These are the kinds of questions that get me in trouble. You don't know what I know about how inflammatory my words can appear."

No shit, Sherlock. It's not just your words that were inflammatory, it was your napalm. That's the point -- especially if you knew it was pointless and you didn't say anything and allowed the body bags to keep on coming.

And then Errol presses the point. He asks the question we all want him to ask: "Do you feel personally responsible for the war? Do you feel guilty?"

And this time ... he punts again. "I don't want to go any further on this question. It just opens up more controversy ... "

And then Errol, in his wonderful "I'm just curious" voice, asks: "Do you get the feeling that you're damned if you do [talk] and if you don't, no matter what?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's right," Mr. McNamara says. "And I'd rather be damned if I don't."