Dumbledore on the Dursleys in OotP (was:Re: Old, old problem.)

[Joe Goodwin]

No: HPFGUIDX 151291

Amiable Dorsai:
It was the right decision, or a right decision, anyway.  It did keep
Harry alive, if not happy.  It did preserve the Prophecy Child for his
inevitable rematch with Voldemort.  The logical next thing to do
would be to tell Harry his destiny as soon as he hit Hogwarts, to
immediately start training him for his destiny.

That would be the logical thing.  
   
   
Joe: 
Sorry but I think it would have been an unmitigated disaster to tell a eleven year old boy who only just found out about the magical world that he had to save it  by killing one of the most powerful wizards on the planet. Either Harry would have thought Dumbledore utterly mad and never had any confidence in him or if he had believed it he would have been crushed under the pressure.
   
As anyone who knows anything about training soldiers will tell you, you first give them the basics, good food, exercise, and training with their weapons. The first years at Hogwarts did exactly that. Then you give them advanced training to make them better soldiers. I' an certain any other ex-military reading this will back me up here. Dumbledore did the only thing he could do compassion or not. Anything else would have been sheer stupidity and Dumbledore wasn't stupid

Amiable Dorsai:
But then, I think, Dumbledore found that he couldn't do it, couldn't
bring himself to spoil Harry's joy at discovering magic, couldn't
resist allowing Harry a just little bit of a happy childhood, then
just a little bit more, and a little bit more, until suddenly it was
too late--he couldn't even look Harry in the eye without awakening the
Voldemort connection, much less sit him down and tell him what he
needed to know. 
   
Joe: 
He had to give Harry some happiness because otherwise Harry had no reason to fight for the wizarding world. If you have nothing then you have nothing to lose.  

Amiable Dorsai: 
Similarly, once Harry found Sirius, Dumbledore tried to keep him safe
for Harry's sake, rather than do the logical thing, the thing Sirius
wanted to him to do: send him out to battle Voldemort and his Death
Eaters. 
   
Joe: 
Sirius wanted Harry to know more certainly but I am unsure that he thought Harry was read to go to war. I'm also not so certain how wise any councel from someone driven half mad by prison would be.