Baghdad, Vietnam

I've been watching "Vietnam: A Television History". It is an excellent 13-hour documentary on 5 DVDs. I wish PBS would run it again RIGHT NOW. The country needs to see how much the Iraq debacle resembles Vietnam. The lies told in 1967 by the Johnson administration to bolster support are being repeated almost word-for-word by Bush and his boys today.
There are lots of similarities between the two conflicts but there is one glaring difference: Soldiers returning from Iraq are welcomed home, invited to speak at Rotary meetings and honored by local churches. Returning Vietnam soldiers were the targets of anti-war activists. Some were spat upon or called baby killers but most of us were just politely ignored.
It reminds me of my own homecoming in 1968. Our military transport landed at Travis AFB. My connecting flight to Omaha didn't leave for 24 hours so I caught a taxi to San Francisco and checked in to a downtown hotel. I was excited to be back in "the world" again. As I was signing in, I asked the hotel clerk if he could recommend any place nearby where a guy could go for a beer. His response stunned me. He said, "If the only thing you have to wear is a uniform, I don't recommend that you leave the hotel."
He was right, of course. San Francisco in 1968 was NOT a safe place for a guy in uniform to walk around alone. I took his advice. I stayed in my room and looked out the window. It still felt good to be home because, for the first time in over a year, I didn't worry about waking up in the middle of a rocket attack.