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Comment by disneygibson | Hacker News Reader

Imagine if he had resigned in protest at the decision to push for the invasion of Iraq. He would now be hailed as a hero around the world.

Instead, he didn’t. What a waste of an exceptional career.

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No one who was against the Iraq War from the onset is doing particularly well. When was the last time you heard anything from Phil Donahue?

Are we evaluating the wisdom and virtue of people's actions based on whether they keep them in the limelight? Just because your protest won't necessarily win out doesn't mean you shouldn't mount one.

I swear most of HN barely reads a thread before firing off some half-baked retort. The comment above about Phil Donahue was a reply to this:

>Imagine if he had resigned in protest at the decision to push for the invasion of Iraq. He would now be hailed as a hero around the world.

Nowhere in the above reply about Donahue was there an implication that people shouldn't protest, or that the virtue of their actions are based on whether those actions keep them in the limelight.

Phil Donahue is 85. I imagine he's been taking things a bit easier for 10 or 15 years. It's not as though Colin Powell has been making headlines for a while either, and for no doubt similar reasons. This has nothing to do with whether or not he should have taken a stand against the war in Iraq. I agree with disneygibson: Colin Powell had an exceptional career, all of which led up to that moment, where he simply blew it.

The only reason why you say he blew it at the end is because it was on public display. Perhaps his whole career progression was being a company man who followed orders blindly but we were never privy to it.

DC is a town that rewards failing upwards.

Phil Donahue was fired for questioning the evidence that was sending us to war.

Sure, or at least they'd discussed firing him because of that (but it was in advance of the invasion, I believe), but he was already what he might have considered retirement age when that happened. Could he have gone on elsewhere if he'd wanted to? I bet he could have done. Maybe he just didn't want to.

> No one who was against the Iraq War from the onset is doing particularly well.

Would that include President Obama?

Well, I hadn't heard much about Phil Donahue for some years before that.

He had a fairly popular cable show, and the ratings for it weren't a secret. He was fired as the television networks went on a war footing.

I don't know about that. Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul both raised their profile significantly, and while there have been hiccups since then, they're both much more prominent than they were before 2003 — Ron Paul's son may have even benefited by association.

Isn't "argumentum ad populum" a fallacy?

You don’t get rewarded for questioning the state (or any large power) unfortunately, at least not in media attention or promotions.

That said, of course he should have.

He would have faded into obscurity and we would all be talking about how terrible his replacement was for lying to the UN.

Incorrect. He would be hailed as the first African American Secretary of State with a decorated military career that resigned to protest lies and an unjust war.

Textbooks a century from now will include his name. It could have been in a positive light, but now his name will be forever tarnished.

How well hailed is Russ Feingold? Got 'rewarded' by being voted out of office and forgotten.

Nice to hear Russ's name on HN. Not completely forgotten I see. He also opposed the Patriot Act when it was extremely popular which I thought was courageous.

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