The Old War

Anyone see Dave Letterman rip on John McCain the last few nights for canceling on his show? I am not a McCain fan of course, but Letterman just went on and on and finally, it occurred to me, he really hates this guy. It went beyond politics. What I was really seeing was the last shots of the old war. McCain is a Vietnam war hero and you can bet Dave was in those demonstrations, tossing back the tear gas. So now, what forty some years later, these old animosities come through and we see the rage that the left and right threw at each other in the sixties. Does it become more clear than a left wing talk show host and an old soldier still hacking at each other to demonstate why John McCain should not be elected. Those old culture wars swirl around us still and you can bet the boomers of the Vietman era are still gripped by old antipathies. I am not postulating anything new here--the Atlantic Monthly did a piece on these very issues months ago, but I had not seen it really manifest itself until now. Dave was merciless, literally jabbing him every few minutes. And you could just see Dave with a beard and long hair and John with his military crew, sneering at each other, still fighting the old war that should have ended years ago. Of course McCain did clarify for us recently, that the military didn't lose that war, the American public did. Hope I die before I get old as the old song goes.