Opinion (Matt Spetalnick): Iraq war again evokes ghosts of Vietnam

Then, or now?

WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - No matter how much the White House dreads it, the Bush administration can't seem to escape the analogy of Iraq as another Vietnam.

The latest echo of that other unpopular war four decades past came from Vice President Dick Cheney, who said on a visit to Japan on Wednesday that the United States wants to finish its mission in Iraq and have its troops "return with honor."

Cheney's words underscored a recent shift in President George W. Bush's stated justification for staying in Iraq -- not so much for the once-vaunted goal of military victory but to avert a nightmare scenario they say would be unleashed should the United States leave.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

SPECIAL NOTE: the answer to the 'then or now' question posed underneath the picture is... now.