28 January 2007

Dolchstosslegende, again

Digby at Hullaballoo has a good post about a favourite subject of mine, the function of the dolchstoßlegende about Vietnam in colouring contemporary politics. Digby traces where the legend came from and the unhappy consequences today.

I worry greatly that as a result the man people will look to to lead us out of the quagmire will be the war hero John McCain. He can be McGovern without the hippies, Nixon without the slush fund, a hawk who supported the war but by 2008 will have reluctantly decided that he needs to step in to end it. With a secret plan, no doubt.

Lots of great links, quotes, and analysis, if you like that sort of thing. Check it out. As Digby says:

Young people, educate yourselves.

(And now's a good time to get hooked on Digby all around. This week has been a week of kicking out the jams. We not only got that good post on the myth of Vietnam driving Iraq now, there's also cracking good posts on the language of contemporary conservatives' racism, Dick Cheney's dreams of an imperial presidency, how the Surge has hopefully ruined McCain's strategy for '08, how George W. Bush shows all the signs and weaknesses of a pathologically angry father, how the Scooter Libby trial reveals the Bush Administration's stragetgy for governance is to get away with murder through sheer deceitful audacity. )

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