Captain Ed has some interesting commentary on the NYT’s coverage of the government overthrow / resignation in Beirut:

Instead of explaining how the Iraqi elections set the stage for the wave of demands for democratization in the Arab world, the Times instead compares the Cedar Revolution favorably to other protests — American anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s. No, really:

In scenes reminiscent of protests in the United States in the 1960’s, protestors rushed to get to the site of the demonstration, just yards away from Mr. Hariri’s grave, and camped through the night, waving Lebanese flags as anthems played on. Many handed flowers to the soldiers and beseeched them to cooperate with them. Despite orders to prevent demonstrators from entering the area, soldiers eventually relented to the flood of largely young protestors on Monday, and the demonstration carried on peacefully.

Yes, that connection appears so obvious to me now! Just as in Lebanon, Americans in the 1960s suffered under an occupation by a foreign government and risked their lives by demonstrating against the fascist occupation of their country. Most readers will discern my sarcasm, but apparently the irony-free denizens of the Paper of Record would truly believe that tripe. Yikes.

Related to this, Kevin of Wizbang reminds readers of the origins of the Bush Doctrine.

UPDATE: While we’re on the subject of comparing past and present conflicts, VodkaPundit compares the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima with the war in Iraq. (Via OTB). You really have to read the entire thing, but here’s a quick bite:

But Iraq and Iwo Jima still have a lot in common – and more than might be obvious even to the serious student of history. To see at long last what I mean, let’s look at the critiques.

There’s a strong chance that invading Iwo was a mistake. We didn’t need it as a forward staging area for Operation Olympic. Iwo didn’t control some resource vital to Hirohito’s war machine. In fact, we invaded Iwo Jima and sacrificed nearly 7,000 lives for… an emergency airbase.

That’s right. All of that effort, all of those injuries, all of those lives, just so that bomber crews might have a safe place to put down in case of emergency. I don’t mean to say Iwo wasn’t necessarily worth it. Every airman who found refuge there owed a debt of honor to the Marines who died there. And the propaganda value of the famous flag-raising on Iwo was priceless.

And…

We went into Iwo Jima, with the hope of maybe, hopefully, saving a few more American lives than we lost. And probably, we failed. We went into Iraq hoping to bring revolutionary change to the Arab people, who have suffered under odious regimes.

Reading the news this week, it looks like our efforts in Iraq are paying off.

And if they don’t? Then we’ll have sacrificed 1,400 or so American lives for a great dream – compared to the 7,000 lives we once sacrificed to gain landing fields we never really needed.

Every life lost in battle, whether the war is lost or won, is an almost unspeakable tragedy. But the dream our men and women are dying for today – that’s a dream worth fighting for.

Oops – did I say “dream?” From Egypt to Palestine to Syria to Iraq to Saudi to Afghanistan, our fighting men and women are making the dream into a reality.