in a nutshell. iraq is like vietnam in the sense that it is an unwinnable war waged for deceitful purposes to further an agenda that rewards greed, empire-sized egotism, and dogmatic ideas and that we, the people, are not privy to. we can only guess about it which leads to lots of kooky conspiracy theory that then becomes the issue that diverts our attention from the real stuff. it is also being waged in the context of a culture that our government neither understands or respects. so, like vietnam, we have entered into a conflict that, as a people, we can only lose while certain elements make huge profits off the suffering of innocents. sickening.

geographically, tactically, culturally, of course it is not like vietnam.

regarding kerry, we have to elect him. if bush remains things are sure to get worse and we are sure to do even stupider things. with kerry, we don't know so at least there's a chance things could improve. he is, of course, an establishment candidate beholden to many of the same interests bush is, but it seems clear to me that this election has to be a "lesser of the two evils" thing because this time the greater evil is SO great that it could be the death of us.