Johnny Apple, fresh from a couple of bottles of the best Chardonnay, uncorks a memorable vintage of his: the “This-War-Is-Vietnam” thumbsucker, brought to the table in every conflict, undeterred by its catastrophic record in the past. Actually, there’s something vaguely comforting about this kind of piece. Like a rite of spring, it blossoms early in every recent conflict, a slightly different exhausted metaphor each time – in 2003, in the desert, it’s “quicksand” – a gentle reassurance that the people who have always got it wrong are saying the same thing yet again. Well, we’ll see.
“A MILLION MOGADISHUS”: While the New York Times hails the anti-war movement’s new-found moderation, a Columbia University professor calls for U.S. military defeat. He hopes to se a “million Mogadishus,” a million U.S. soldiers, captured, murdered and paraded through the streets. What the anti-war movement must do now if it is to regain credibility. My take in Salon.
The Dish 