Echoes of Vietnam

"Iraq and Vietnam, [General Warner] said, are both products of failed civilian and military leadership. Presidents John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush began with flawed aims and assumptions, and in both cases they produced military strategies that were doomed to fail."

Go read the article.

This all brings to mind the famous saying by George Santayana about "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." The Iraq War was grounded (if "grounded" is the right word) in ideology and in a belief that the war was God's will.

Maybe it's not occurred to you before that both George Bush and Osama bin Ladin frequently talk about God and how they are fulfilling God's will. Both men are children of privilege. And both send young men off to die for their vision of what God wants.

If only we could put both of them in a lunatic asylum.