Retired Army colonel Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s chief of staff, on the civilians running the Defense Department: “I call them utopians,” he said. “I don’t care whether utopians are Vladimir Lenin on a sealed train to Moscow or Paul Wolfowitz. Utopians, I don’t like. You’re never going to bring utopia, and you’re going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it.”

And this: “I make no bones about it. I have some reservations about people who have never been in the face of battle, so to speak, who are making cavalier decisions about sending men and women out to die. A person who comes immediately to mind in that regard is Richard Perle, who, thank God, tendered his resignation and no longer will be even a semiofficial person in this administration.” (Thanks to Today’s Papers for the links.)