![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/coffinns.jpg\")
It was
\n eerily appropriate that the very first question in President Bush’s press
\n conference the other night was about the Iraq-Vietnam analogy.<\/p>\n
Bush stared straight into the camera and declared, of course, that there
\n was no similarity at all between the desert quagmire of
\n Iraq and the jungle quagmire of Vietnam a generation ago. <\/p>\n
That’s reassuring, as the Dowbrigade has recently been torn by wave
\n after wave of blood-chilling deja-vu practically every time we watch
\n the evening
\n news. The Commander in Chief went on to say that even talking about Iraq
\n and Vietnam in the same terms was unpatriotic and just short of traitorous,
\n as it undermines our fighting boys and girls in theater, and sends a
\n deadly, encouraging message to the enemy. Hearing this, we were hit by
\n another nauseous wave of traitorous deja-vu. Meanwhile, the body
\n count keeps going up and up….<\/p>\n
\nAlthough President Bush declared major combat over almost
\n a year ago, last week
\n was the deadliest yet for Americans in uniform. The Department
\n of Defense identified 64 service members who died in the week that ended
\n on Saturday.
\n Until then, the highest toll had come many months ago, not long
\n after
\n the start of the war last March, in a week when 50 Americans died.<\/p>\nThe dead came from cities and small towns across the continental
\n United States, as well as from Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands.
\n They came
\n from all the major service branches – the Air Force, Navy, Army,
\n Marines, as well as the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.<\/p>\nThey were as young as 18, as old as 45. At least two were women.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
from the New
\n York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was eerily appropriate that the very first question in President Bush’s press conference the other night was about the Iraq-Vietnam analogy. Bush stared straight into the camera and declared, of course, that there was no similarity at all between … Continue reading