Dancing on the graves

The media are all a-flutter with the news that the total of US deaths in Iraq has exceeded 1,000. Some anti-war types can hardly contain their glee; in their minds, America will finally wake up to the futility of the Iraq war and thus vote for John Kerry.

Kerry himself has a "new, bold" plan for the war in Iraq that he will announce today. One wonders if it is any newer and bolder than the several other plans that he has floated since the campaign began. Indeed, Kerry has changed his mind so often on this subject any proposal he offers has to be considered dead on arrival. And his constant flip-flopping on the issue does not inspire confidence in his leadership abilities.

Once again, George Bush has outsmarted his opponents. The media and the Democrats are still fighting the Viet Nam war, and their response to the Iraq war is conditioned by their experiences in 1968. But this is not 1968, and we're not in Viet Nam. John Kerry has not figured out that in wartime, Americans want to elect someone who has a plan for victory. They don't want to elect someone who merely dances on the graves of the dead while screaming "It's George Bush's fault!"