"There’s ruling by inspiration, and there’s ruling by fear."

AcademicElephant from RedState.com is on the ground in Iraq. His April 28th post quotes a young army specialist.

The way I see it, there are two ways to rule people. There’s ruling by inspiration, and there’s ruling by fear. It’s harder to achieve inspiration, but if you can get there in the long run it’s easier because you inspire people to take initiative to do things for themselves. Ruling by fear is easier until that day that people stand up to you, and all your power goes away.

We’re trying to help the Iraqis find their inspiration. The insurgents are trying to rule by fear. They want to terrify people into thinking that their children are not safe, so that they stay at home and don’t get used to this new life under democracy. They want to attack the things we build, like schools, so that the people see them as temporary. We can give them, but they want people to believe that they’ll come along and take them away.

I’d rather be on the side of inspiration.

Out of the Long War will come a new generation of great leaders for America. This young soldier may well be one of them.