Apocalypse Now was a small part of a larger effort to paint America and its military as monsters. It worked pretty well back then.

A lot of people--some of them the same ones--would love to see our troops painted that way now, and the prison scandal was like a Christmas present for them.

Our retreat from Vietnam was celebrated all over the world. I'm sure a similar retreat from Iraq would be too. But I dare say the humiliation of America would have a lot more to do with that than anything having to do with Iraq.

The people we are fighting don't seem to have a lot of problems with nuances, self-doubt, or agonizing over whether or not the people on the sidelines "approve" of us. Maybe you'd like to have this conversation with them. I would highly recommend against doing it in person.

If you are still having trouble deciding the differences between good and evil, I can post the picture from the end of this sequence.