There is One Similarity Between Iraq and Vietnam

It's the mainstream media.

Scott Johnson's piece in The Daily Standard points out that the MSM can only see the war in Iraq through casualty counts and the Vietnam lens.

Many have noted the media's efforts to portray the the current war in Iraq as a replay of Vietnam. These efforts date back to R.W. Apple's invocation of Vietnam on day 24 of the campaign in Afghanistan:

Like an unwelcome specter from an unhappy past, the ominous word "quagmire" has begun to haunt conversations among government officials and students of foreign policy, both here and abroad. Could Afghanistan become another Vietnam?

This drum of defeatism has not stopped beating. This past week, for example, Knight Ridder reporter Tom Lasseter portrayed the situation in Iraq's Anbar province as a repeat of Vietnam. Lasseter 's article is a troubling piece with relevant quotes from officers in the thick of the action.

...

If only one could put Lasseter in touch with the Power Line reader who served in Vietnam and last week wrote in from his current post in Iraq. He finds only one similarity: "[T]he deplorable way the mainstream media with their left-leaning bias have reported the two wars."

This is especially appropriate when read alongside Arthur Chrenkoff's latest installment of Good news from Iraq. I encourage everyone to read this, but I'll note that you'll need to set aside a good hour to really absorb it all.

How many "liberals" would ever believe there's an hour's worth of good news on this war?