It just occurred to me that Buddy Holly, who brought us that song, died in that horrible accidental plane crash with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens much in the way Mary Jo Kopechne’s young life was cut short while that other Teddy – the one who always seems to be with us – survived and survived and survived.
And speaking of blasts from the past, now Teddy the K. is reminding us–ad tedium, ad nauseum-that we are back in Vietnam again, that Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam, etc., etc. Ad nauseum is particularly apt because it was the unholy alliance of the Kennedys and Diem that brought us into the Vietnam War in the first place. But I don’t want to go there. The lack of similarity between the Vietnam War and the war against Islamofascism should be so apparent to anyone with even the slightest knowledge of history (or even common sense) that I don’t want to insult the intelligence of the readers of this blog by detailing it. But what continues to amaze is the psychology behind this persistent Vietnam fixation. Is everyone still trying to be cool? We’re all aging, but enough already. Go put a down payment on an iPhone or something. The word Vietnam should be banned from our political discourse. It’s getting as tired as Mr. Blackwell’s “Ten Worst Dressed List” – and it’s almost as old.
CORRECTION: It’s older. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was 1954. Mr. Blackwell began his list in 1960.
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