It has occurred to me that Mr. Bush’s war and the aborted war of Jack Kennedy have some startling similarities.  The first is that they were seriously flawed in the planning and soon showed that their intended purpose – to depose a dictator did not work and played havoc with the “allies” who collectively did not want a part in either plan.  They were, it is admitted, planned in different times and by different people.  The hawks then were the Cuban exiles or refugees who urged the war defeated in the Bag of Pigs and subsequent lobbying down to this day. The hawks of yesteryear – just three years ago – do not see the U.S. as bogged down but dream of the rewards of staying the course.  Mr. Bush has not admitted an error like Mr. Kennedy but Mr. Bush does acknowledge that his time-table – if there is one – has changed and we are in for the long haul.  This is a terrible burden placed on the soldiers who have their tours extended and who, when damaged, are sort of ignored.  Just how high is the toll of those killed by now?  We are given monthly tallies but no grand totals.

What Mr. Kennedy bequeathed us by taking up cudgels with Mr. Castro, now superannuated, was an ongoing cold war with Cuba and the curious precedence given to fleeing Cubans who could get a foot on the ground in order to be accepted as part of the ex-patriate population who control all of South Florida.  This has raised all sorts of problems about education and the local politics which has seen the rise of Cuban Americans entering local as well as regional contests in greater numbers.  It is interesting to see a Ros-Lehtinen making controversial call for assassination in the same way as a Coloradan making controversial speeches about South Florida having become a third world country.  How this plays out will be interesting.

Mr. Bush’s war is quite different.  Mr. Kennedy’s investment was just to switch attention to the Caribbean in his fight against Communism.  The show down over nuclear warheads in Anti-America-Capitalist Cuba was a short affair but the disgrace lingers on.  Mr. Bush IS accountable for the lives of Americans and others who have been decimated in a war with no end in sight.  His plans grew like kudzu as he planned for a war and got one and it has gone awry. Too many people said “me too” when the toxins of the jingoists were sounded.  Now, there is a scramble to disassociate themselves with the safe at home warriors but there is no plan to bring our boys and girls back home.

It is easy to make comparisons and they are there to be seen. It is easy to see the mistakes but there do not seem to be solutions – only further complications.