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Originally Posted by PornoDoggy
There are a lot of reasons you don't see the sorts of opposition to the war in Iraq that you did about Vietnam.
One of them - and frankly I think this is the biggest one - is that there is no draft. If the SUV driving soccer moms and pops thought Johnny or Janey could be snatched up and sent to Iraq, you'd see a lot more opposition.
Another is the body count - 2,000 dead is bad, but I think that's still less than we lost in '65 (the first year of open American combat participation in the war); it's definitely less than we lost in '66 and the following years.
Yet another is time. By the time the anti-war movement began attracting mainstream public support (early 1968 was the watershed), Americans had been openly in combat for 3 1/2 years.
We've accomplished at least part of the mission - Saddam is gone. As shaky as it is today, the current Iraqi government is more stable than any South Vietnamese government was during the entire war.
I just don't think you can compare the two conflicts in the way you are attempting to do so. I'm not convinced that reaction (or lack of it) to the war is evidence that this generation is any more self-absorbed than mine was.
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It's almost scary how you are clear and concise...