In the “What Vietnam syndrome?” category, Lawrence Kaplan reports in The New Republic that opinion polls show that Americans are quite willing to go the distance in Iraq, even at the cost of considerable casualties. One poll asked people the maximum tolerable number of casualties for Iraq, and the mean response was 29,853. 58% of those questioned in a Wall Street Journal poll said they were willing for the US to maintain a presence in Iraq as long as five years. As Kaplan points out, it is mostly politicians and pundits who are still stricken with Vietnamitis, and they project that onto Americans.
Someone tell Howard Dean. Or, on second thought, don’t.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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