1. Healing the Old Wounds for Good
2. Pavlov's Politics

The Presidency has been passed to a new generation. Perhaps now (as one television commentator remarked) after two Baby Boomer Presidents we will finally get beyond the issues of the Vietnam era. Is this really true? Or is how we are fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan setting up a new Vietnam-like controversy for future generations?

Battle lines formed in part over the last two Presidents based on their activities during the Vietnam War. Those lines have helped define the membership and policies of the two main political parties. The main themes of the debate revolve around the unsatisfactory result of our efforts (the North Vietnamese conquered South Vietnam in the end) and why we had that unsatisfactory result.

One of the persistent themes of the reasons behind that result is the anti-war protests of the time and whether or not a male politician who was of age to participate in that conflict did so. The debate is aggravated by the prime method used to fill the ranks in that era. That method was conscription (better known as The Draft) applied with a heavy dose of political favoritism. That favoritism eventually led our country to install a lottery based draft and finally switch to the “All Volunteer” system we use today.

Obama was too young to be part of that dilemma. Nevertheless, his opponents tried to put him on one side via an implied involvement with William Ayers, the former leader of an anti war group. While the effort failed, it shows how wounds from almost 40 years ago have yet to heal.

Unfortunately, we may be forming that kind of dilemma today with our “All Volunteer” military. Readers will note my use of quotation marks around the term “All Volunteer”. That’s because . . .

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