Iraq, Vietnam and public perception

There's no comparison. They're exact opposites in fact.

Reb called it correctly - the draft was a huge issue.

Back then, the National Guard was viewed as a dodge by Hawks and a sellout to The Man by Doves. To Hawks, real patriots signed up for active duty service. To Doves, real people of conscious went to Canada rather than serve in any way.

Today, thanks to mission changes and realignments in the 1970s and 1980s, the National Guard is on the frontlines, with entire units rotating to Iraq for a year at a time.

And that's another huge difference...Johnson's policy of individual tours of duty was a disaster for unit cohesion and Pentagon planners vowed that would never happen again. So, for Iraq we have unit rotations.

Overall, the impact of Iraq has far less emotional impact. During high school in the Vietnam era, you could count the boys in your class and know with certainty that some would be drafted and some would die in Southeast Asia.