That's what worries me about McCain. I don't think there is any possibility of achieving total victory in Iraq (from the USA's point of view, I mean...). On the other hand, I don't think McCain would settle for anything else but total victory, unless he was absolutely forced to by the situation deteriorating so badly both at home and abroad that it paralyzed his government. Either way, you'd be looking at a very bad situation.

Guest, your post setting out the reasons for why the USA finally pulled out of Vietnam is quite correct: the protest movement in the streets of America, resistance to the Draft, and the fact that the mainstream media turned against the war and put images in front of ordinary Americans that turned a majority of them against the war.

The mainstream media were more liberal and much more independent at that time. They are now in the pocket of a very few wealthy controllers...a monopoly, basically...and journalists have now been "embedded" into the very power structure which carries out the war. That is an extremely bad situation. To my mind, it strikes a close parallel to how Hitler and Mussolini managed their national media in the 30's and 40's.

So you have a compliant media...and that results in a mostly passive public who are certainly restless now, but they are not committed enough to really undertake an effective mass protest movement in large enough numbers to change government policy.

The powers that be, those who plan war policy, learned a lot from Vietnam. They have made sure never to let the US media loose in that fashion again.

As for the self-immolation of those Buddhist monks in Saigon, it DID make a big difference. It was one of the key events that helped bring down Ngo Dinh Diem's government...and it would be remembered long after. It was one among many different incidents that gradually destroyed people's faith in that war.