Joe Katzman says that the media is right--Iraq is another Vietnam. Just not in the way they think it is.

As a "conservative", be aware that pushing radical "anti-pc" views is not necessarily good. Some people are "anti-pc" just for the heck of it, often for no good reason. They just like to crush authority figures down. This happens on the left and right sides of the political spectrum.

e.g. in the 60s drug use was considered "anti-pc" hence radicals just had to use drugs to show their banner, so to speak (I have nothing against people using drugs, but I think using them just to prove it shouldn't be banned is a banner of stupity, it is cutting off your nose to spite your face). Ergo Punk, Rap, etc. Ergo fascists before WWII, etc.

Each matter should be dealt separately as its own issue.

Gojira,

There's also the very real problem of authority figures crushing independent people down. To lots of us that appears to be a much more significant problem than the reverse.

For what it's worth, quite a few people in the authoritarian wing of leftist radicalism in the 1960s were strongly antidrug.

Democratic -- as opposed to authoritarian -- people tend to get along much better with democratic people with whom they have political disagreements.

"Authority" can be moral, power or reputation based.

One "authority" figure may fit into one or more of these categories.

I agree authoritarianism is a major problem: when it conflicts with basic liberties such as freedom of speech, movement or the right to a fair trial and humane punishment (under the circumstances). People in the left claim things like the Patriot Act curtail basic liberties too much, from the right we often see similar claims for political campaign funding or advertising.

The traditional liberal POV would allow political campaign funding by anyone and abolish things like the Patriot Act or the opaque crap which happens at Guantanamo. The traditional liberal POV is historically buried, unfortunately.