Why is it that documentary footage of McNamara from the Vietnam era seems to be echoed in similar coverage of Rumsfeld from the Iraq War?
Is it the paternal, “I know what’s best and you don’t know anything,” attitude?
Is it the priorities and sensibilities that have been cultivated from within institutions that are, and always will be, well out of harm’s way, while others, soldiers on the ground, will take the real heat from any mistakes?
Maybe it’s the smug self-assurance that the war machine is rolling ahead, and that the whole display of meeting the public is just play-acting, an attempt to put the right gloss on decisions that have already been made for reasons that will never be brought to light…
History repeats when people forget what went before. Now more than ever, it’s time for the new generation to revisit the mistakes of the past to prevent them from occurring yet again.
