Be the smart guy, not the one giving the finger to the room.

David Brooks thinks it's just too bad that our former allies can't stand that Bush's administration is so honest.

Brooks repeats the classic hawk intellectual fallacy: "They can't stand the truth: we are a 300 lb man capable of kneeling on their chests and drubbing them into stupidity."

Actually, it's not the truth of that statement which bothers our former allies. It's the actual kneeling on their chests and drubbing we're giving them.

The polite, mature and intelligent country -- that country we had before George W. took office, which Brooks disdains in today's article -- knows how to move quietly about the room, smiling, chatting, and subtly flexing its 300 pounds of muscle to make the crowd open up a way to the buffet table. It's called, Mr. Brooks, "Using your charisma", using your brains much more than your brawn. Even better when doing so reveals an honest consideration of the needs and aspirations of other people in the room.

And between the two choices, using your charisma -- and truly caring about your friends' needs and aspirations -- is far smarter than honestly shoving your friends aside in your storm the buffet table. Because when the daggers we don't know we don't know about come out (apologies, Rumsfeld), your friends are more inclined to collect around you than to say "Let tough guy take it on his own."

Bush's honesty and candor, as Brooks calls them, has made sure we have no more friends in the room. We won't know until we feel the dagger in our kidneys.

For all the money spent on anti-terrorism efforts, pissing our friends off counters those efforts; the best anti-terrorism effort makes the rest of the world friendly and dependent upon us, and us friendly and dependent upon them, so that we protect each other. We should be friendly and pleasant, if muscular, and not kneel on their chests drubbing them.