And here's James Lileks on Hedges' speech:
Is it wrong to deliver an antiwar commencement address? Of course not. You could argue that it would be a dereliction of your duties not to bring the outside world into your comments, since that’s the place to which the grads are headed. But such a speech needs to persuade. It needs to draw the audience close, make eye contact. Crack a joke, wax colloquial, opine a bit, then bring it all back to the grads. Pat them on the back, remind them that the process of learning has just begun, warn them against cant of any sort, and give them a closing that wraps this extraordinary day up in one sweet smart line they can take with them for the hard years to come.
What did he do? He cracked the mike, and said I have come to talk about war, and empire. You could just hear the shoulders sag: oh man. It’s Mr. Big Wet Pillow fingering his Vietnamese worry-beads. As if we haven’t heard this for the last four years.
That's perfect.
