A new phrase has crept into the dispatches from Iraq in recent weeks – “civil war.” Insurgents are increasing their attacks on Iraqis who cooperate, or as they see it, collaborate, with Americans. Some attacks are on individuals, like police or military recruits, others are aimed at groups, like the Kurds.

Looming civil war completes the stuck-in-the-quagmire, no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel Vietnam scenario. The other, déjà vu-inducing pieces include:

Manufactured provocation for launching invasion –

Then: Gulf of Tonkin “incident”

Now: Weapons of Mass Destruction

Crackpot political philosophy used to justify extra-hemispheric meddling –

Then: Halting the Spread of Communism

Now: Establishing Democracy in the Middle East

Tough-guy Defense secretary who steadfastly claims progress in war effort while working ceaselessly behind the scenes to hide mounting evidence of failure (and has slicked-back hair and rimless spectacles) –

Then: Robert McNamara

Now: Donald Rumsfeld

Three-sided territory near occupied capital, from which rebels launch attacks –

Then: Mekong Delta

Now: Sunni Triangle

Glib epithet used by war proponents to describe those who point out the shortcomings of U.S. policy –

Then: Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

Now: Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys

(While much as remained the same, there has been clear decline in this category.)

Notable war crime exposed by the press, which Pentagon hierarchy pins on low-level personnel, while covering the brass of the truly responsible –

Then: My Lai

Now: Abu Ghraib

Investigative reporter who exposes the story –

Then: Seymour Hersh

Now: Seymour Hersh

Neighboring nation, into which U.S. military makes unauthorized incursions –

Then: Cambodia

Now: Syria

Puppet dictator, installed by the U.S. to give legitimacy to American occupation –
Then: Ngo Dinh Diem

Now: Iyad Allawi

Indigenous military force, labeled “terrorists” by an American government that will not recognize as genuine any nationalism that rejects U.S. hegemony –

Then: Viet Cong

Now: Madhi Army

American weapon that contaminates an entire generation of citizens of the occupied country, as well as the American military personnel who serve in that country –

Then: Agent Orange defoliant

Now: Depleted uranium ammunition

Some things we don’t know yet – how long it will take for American leaders to admit their error this time, how many Americans (and Iraqis) will die before that admission is made, how many decades it will take before stability returns to the region – or how one goes about asking a man to be the last man to die for a mistake.

(c) Mark Floegel, 2004