In the large town where the emperor's palace was, life was joyous and happy; and every day new visitors arrived. One day two swindlers came. They told everybody they were weavers and that they could weave the most marvelous cloth. Not only were the colors and the patterns of their material extraordinary, but the cloth had the strange quality of being invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or unforgivably stupid. 1
In the January 1999 Proceedings , former Secretary of the Navy James Webb made the case that the Navy was allowed to shrink in both fleet size and personnel, because Navy leaders made no viable contrary argument to Congress and the public. 2 In essence, they were silent as cuts were made. If the admirals were silent, they weren't alone.
