Some mistakes are so big as to make acknowledgment impossible for a politician.

JFK was, according to some reputable sources but not all, about to admit Vietnam was a mistake and get out while it was early.

LBJ wanted to appease JFKs supporters, thought JFK would continue the war, and escalated it. The news the public got was always that victory was right around the corner, the situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, the South Vietnamese loved us, and the North Vietnamese were an oppressed lot just aching for "freedom American style".

LBJ used the phony Gulf of Tonkin "incident", much the same way GWB used the phony WMD.

Now, not wanting to be known as the only American President to flat lose a war, LBJ was stuck.

To get out, as we did, would have been to admit defeat, and that Americans had died needlessly in a foolish fight. So, the lies had to support each other and the carnage continue.

Nixon tried to get out, but couldn't get face-saving terms. The Vietnamese really didn't care about face, they had been fighting one invader or another for hundreds of years, and would go on. Only after his second election could Nixon cut-and-run.

And it is now generally conceded that Vietnam was a tragic use of American lives and money, a tragic waste of Vietnamese lives and money. The lives and money was wasted.

And it was all predicated on pride. And money. Much of it Texas construction companies.

And we're there again, in a foreign land, wasting American and Iraqi lives, for pride and money. Much of it Texas construction companies. And oil companies.

If we don't understand history, as the man said, we will repeat it. By somehow ignoring the waste that was Vietnam, by not acknowledging the mistake, the American public allowed the waste that is Iraq.

Wars are sometimes inevitable. And many times they are not, but just the folly of politicians manipulating a jingoistic public. And I can't help but compare Vietnam and Iraq as lynching, where the politicians stir up hate, demonize, and a mindless crowd screams "Kill 'em!"

How many people wanted to "get Saddam" and didn't think of all the innocent folks who would be "gotten" along the way, the Americans who would die, the Iraqis who would die, just had "getting Saddam" on their minds.

By the way, why isn't the social tragedy that is North Korea on the front pages right now? May it be because the politicians don't need to divert the public attention? If NK is that bad, isn't it that bad all the time, or is it that bad just when needed?

Watch for the demons who demonize. As Ma used to say, when everyone is looking left, someone has to be looking right. Or vice versa, I don't remember.

Arf