Sometimes I feel almost prescient. Originally posted November 18, 2002

I haven't seen any polls lately showing how great a majority of the population favors going to war. I suppose since the President has a "mandate" for war, the polls have become irrelevant. Still, it has seemed to me right along that the popularity of war has been pretty much a vote for war in the abstract. That is, a war without consequences for us, but with lots of dead "evildoers" on display on the early newscasts.
When the war actually begins, even with the tightly managed news coming out of the Pentagon, I believe its popularity will quickly subside. It certainly will when the cameras start showing the body bags being offloaded.
Last week, on Veterans Day, the president spoke at the Vietnam
Memorial. It would have been better if he had looked at the memorial. And perhaps reflected on the design for the memorial of the next war.