I am struck once again by the incomparable hold VIETNAM has over some people. They don’t seem to realize how the use of this inapt example demonstrates their inability to grasp the nature of new and different conflicts. When I was in college, El Salvador was Vietnam. When I was in Washington, Kuwait was Vietnam. Afghanistan was briefly Vietnam when we hadn’t won the war after a week. It’s Warholian: in the future, all conflicts will be Vietnam for 15 minutes.

Vietnam was an anomaly. Vietnam was perhaps the least typical war we’ve ever fought, but somehow it’s become the Gold Standard for wars – because, one suspects, it became inextricably bound up with Nixon, that black hole of human perfidy, and it coincided with the golden glory years of so many old boomers who now clog the arteries of the media and academe. A gross overgeneralization, I know. But it’s a fatal conceit. If you’re always fighting the last war you’ll lose the next one. Even worse: Vietnam was several wars ago.

So now we’re fighting Iranian-backed forces in their backyard. This is not a new war. It began the day the “students” swarmed the US Embassy in Tehran. And Senator Kerry worries that a military response to these thugs will inflame the Muslim world against us? If so, that speaks volumes about the Muslim world he seems to know so much about – by his logic they prefer death and defeat to comity and cooperation.

If that’s truly the case, then it’s best we face it now.

(2004-04-05) -- In a major policy address at the Brookings Institution today Senator Edward M. Kennedy said that Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry’s actions prove that "Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam."

"The parallels between Vietnam and Iraq are stunning when seen through the actions of one man who lived through both eras," said Mr. Kennedy. "Thirty-some years ago John Kerry fought in Vietnam, then later protested U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In October 2002, John Kerry voted to support war against Iraq, then later protested U.S. involvement in Iraq. Clearly, Kerry’s actions and public statements demonstrate that Iraq has become a quagmire for Bush."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded to Mr. Kennedy’s remarks by saying, "Ted Kennedy is John Kerry’s Chappaquiddick."

1. high-tech bomb detectors;
2. more training for airport security;
3. criminal background checks for security personnel;
4. increased canine patrols.

Rantburg postings, March 20, 2003:
"Iraq fires Scud toward U.S. troops"
"U.S. missiles target Saddam"
Included here not for the articles themselves (though they are worth reading in their own right) but for the comment threads, which include live-from-the-scene reportage by Rantburg regular "Bodyguard."

Steve Smith, "WAR IN THE GULF: William Wallace leads ground war to liberate the Iraqis from Saddam" The Daily Record (March 20, 2003). -- "Scotland’s cavalry, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, flew the Lion Rampant as the move forward began."

James Lileks, "The Daily Bleat" (March 21, 2003).

Brian Taylor, "A Frontline Account," The Wall Street Journal (serialized diary) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Michael Kelly, "Across the Euphrates" (April 3, 2004) (LRR). -- The late writer’s last column; a vivid account of the 3rd Infantry’s attack out of the Karbala Gap into Baghdad.

Gethin Chamberlain, "Bagpipes play as the Black Watch takes Basra" The Scotsman (April 7, 2003). -- Attacking accompanied by bagpipes -- that, my friends, is class!

Vernon Loeb, "Thunder Run" Washington Post (October 13, 2003). -- The brigade-sized reconaissance-in-force that began the fall of Baghdad. One of history’s most audacious military actions.

"Baghdad Battles - A Frontline Report" Strategy Page. -- An account of the "Battle of the Three Stooges" along the airport road: "Can you imagine the cohesiveness of a unit where rather than move away from a tank attack the platoon sergeant drives out to draw fire away from his platoon leader?"

Adam Lusher, "The 10-hour battle for Curly, Larry and Moe" London Telegraph (April 13, 2003). -- More on the "Thunder Run" and the "Battle of the Three Stooges."

Mark Oliver, "Baghdad celebrates" The Guardian (April 9, 2003).

Richard Tomkins, "War Diary: Tales from the front" (March 22, 2003).

Ray L. Smith & bing west, The March Up: Taking Baghdad With the First Marine Division (book).

Peggy Noonan, "Eyes on the Prize" The Wall Street Journal (March 24, 2003).

James Lileks, "The Daily Bleat" (April 9, 2003) -- "Allied troops liberated a children’s jail today. I wish that sentence made no sense."

William Shawcross, "Baghdad Day" Wall Street Journal (April 10, 2003). -- "April 9 is not just spring, it is for Iraqis eternal spring."

Victor Davis Hanson, "Yesterday’s News" National Review Online (April 10, 2003).

Victor Davis Hanson, "Anatomy of the Three-Week War" National Review Online (April 16, 2003).

Robert Fisk, "Saddam’s masters of concealment dig in, ready for battle" (April 3, 2003) -- "The road to the front in central Iraq is a place of fast-moving vehicles, blazing Iraqi anti-aircraft guns, tanks and trucks hidden in palm groves, a train of armoured vehicles bombed from the air and hundreds of artillery positions dug into revetments to defend the capital. That a Western journalist could see so much of Iraq’s military preparedness says as much for the Iraqi government’s self-confidence as it does for the need of Saddam Hussein’s regime to make propaganda against its enemies."

Robert Fisk, "So where are the Americans?" (April 4, 2003) -- "Only three hours earlier, the BBC had reported claims that forward units of an American mechanised infantry division were less than 16km west of Baghdad -- and that some US troops had taken up positions on the very edge of the international airport. But I was 27km west of the city. And there were no Americans, . . ."

Robert Fisk, "Allies ’sieze most of Baghdad airport’" (April 5, 2003) -- "All that stuff I wrote the last two days--fugghetaboudit!"

Dan Plesch, "It’s Not Over Yet" The Guardian (April 9, 2003). -- Had the misfortune to be published in the same issue as "Baghdad celebrates."

Edward Said, "The Academy of Lagado" London Review of Books (cover date April 17, 2003). -- Begins with a paean to the "resistance and anger of the Iraqi population." That’s what happens sometimes when your publisher sets the deadline too early.

"Baghad Bob" fan site -- At least as accurate as Robert Fisk’s reporting!

Matt Labash, "The Hardest Job in the Army" The Weekly Standard (May 19, 2003). -- "Take up our quarrel with the foe:/To you from failing hands we throw/The torch; be yours to hold it high./If ye break faith with us who die./We shall not sleep, . . . "