Comparing Iraq to Viet Nam has become common, and I imagine after yesterday's protest marches in Washington and around the world we'll be hearing it more and more (as in "not since Viet Nam has the nation seen as many mobilized...).
For the social reaction inside the U.S., it kind of works. I can't help thinking, though, as I read the death tolls coming in every day in dribs and drabs, that even though this war is not about separatism, it looks a whole hell of a lot more like Chechnya. How much advice do you suppose W gets from his good friend, Vladimir?
UPDATE: I referenced a Juan Cole post in my precious post, Sickness, but this paragraph hit me like a ton of Soviet bricks.
Let's get them out, now, before they destroy any more cities, create any more hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, provoke any more ethnic hatreds by installing Shiite police in Fallujah or Kurdish troops in Turkmen Tal Afar. They are sowing a vast whirlwind, a desert sandstorm of Martian proportions, which future generations of Americans and Iraqis will reap.
He is describing the Soviet policy of controlling ethnic minorities. Maybe Bush is paying more attention to Vlad than we thought. And it wouldn't be the first time one of us talked about a Stalinist policy coming out of the Bush administration.
Posted by binky at September 25, 2005 12:08 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International AffairsUPDATE: By Neddie Jingo has clever commentary and photo fun here.
Posted by: at September 25, 2005 01:01 PM | PERMALINK