Wow, Iraq Is Kind of a Big Deal
Ten years ago, Republicans used to complain about a lot. Especially the fact that Clinton could do no wrong - especially when he got caught with his pants down. The biggest presidential womanizer since JFK and the signer of the Defense of Marriage Act had the full support of the National Organization for Women and most of the gay/lesbian pressure groups out there. Yet Bob Packwood got no sympathy from anyone - including his own party, and Newt Gingrich and Bob Livingston were eliminated from the speakership partially because of their extramarital affairs. The conventional wisdom was that Democrats had no principle, and Republicans never protected their own.
Until yesterday. Joe Lieberman fell to anti-war candidate Ned Lemont in the Connecticut Democratic primary for the Senate yesterday. Lieberman was never a firebrand, and was a consistant center-left politician, yet he sided with Bush on the Iraq war. And according to today's (Wednesday's) convential wisdom, that is enough.
another tale spun by ColeTrain @ 7:22 AM
2 comments
links to this post
2 Comments:
"Baby Boom" Anti-War Effect on the Iraq War
The sentiment against an extended war in Iraq has grown much more quickly than in the past. Part of the reason was that in the Gulf War we were able to get in and out quickly. The bombing of Serbia into submission was even quicker. We were promised more of the same by the Bush Administration in our WMD war in Iraq.
It was the Gulf War, though, that got us over the supposed "Vietnam Syndrome," misinterpreted by most conservatives as Americans not wanting to fight any war. Post-Vietnam society never really suffered from a "syndrome," which sounds like a serious mental malady.
Instead, U.S society had learned an important lesson; that the U.S. could not always impose its will on other countries. Americans of the "baby boom" lived, and many fought, through that senseless, bloody war.
Back in the 1960's and '70's the anti-war movement started on campuses and moved slowly into the social mainstream. Although not a movement today, Republicans should not forget that the boomers are still here, and do remember the real lessons of Vietnam. One is that there should be no open-ended commitments to war.
The people who started the Iraq war were the Young Republicans of the 1960's. They were the guys like Cheney with the short hair, rather than the long hair, who were avoiding the draft. There were no Young Democrats because the anti-war movement was a spontaneous movement, not a political one. The anti-war movement party didn't trust either political party.
Those Young (now old) Republicans who got us into Iraq, are the conservatives who totally misinterpreted Vietnam as a "sydrome" rather than a lesson to be learned about the limits of American power. Since they refused to learn that lesson, we are all paying the price in terms of dead soldiers, huge deficits, and no "light at the end of the tunnel."
Now the "boomers" are in their 50's and 60's, and once again see their country stuck in what seems an open-ended commitment to war, another one of the real lessons of Vietnam. That's why anti-war sentiment in the country has arisen so much more quickly over the Iraq war than it did in Vietnam.
The boomers are also now in the age range that produces the highest voter turnout. So beware pro-war politicians. Don't let the Vietnam Syndrome get you down, and out of elective office.
I don't think we are dealing with just the GOP here, obviously. McCarthyism pointed out brilliantly that pro-war neoconservatives are looking for a one and a half party solution, and Lieberman and Hillary Clinton are part of it.
It is not as simple as an anti-war Democrat party vs. a warmongering GOP.We didn't see these widespread sentiments with the Gulf War of Bush 41, or Clinton's Balkan war of the 90s.
The Iraq conflict, this time around, has developed such strong anti-war feelings not just because of obvious parallels with Vietnam - but because it is becoming obvious even to the average Joe that this war was a costly mistake and it refuses to accept an easy solution.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home