Iraq, 1776 it's not!

The Portland Oregonian's Steve Duin has an excellent commentary on the Bush administration's attempts to compare the chaos in Iraq with the American Revolution in 1776. I'll give you a few snippets but go read all of the Drummers join 76 trombones in big parade

Desperate to avoid comparisons with the quagmire of Vietnam, the president and his advisers haul out a far more popular conflict, the American Revolution, to rally the troops at home. That the analogy is desperate, superficial and inaccurate doesn't seem to matter.

[....]

And Eifler sees no comparison between the two struggles for independence: "Another nation didn't come in and set up our constitution," he says. "We set up our own."

[....]

In the end, Eifler believes Vietnam is a more compelling analogy for Iraq because this country was trying to foster a government that "would be friendly to the United States and reflect U.S. values at a time when the people of Vietnam wanted their own government." Communist infiltrators, the insurgents of that day, added to the futility and chaos.

And if the Bush administration is determined to employ the U.S. Constitution to comfort us about what's ahead for Iraq, Eifler reminds us that we were still tinkering with the constitution 50 years later, desperately trying to avert the nation's long, steady slide toward civil war.

Iraq is not America in 1776, it's not even Vietnam. It's more chaotic than Vietnam.