All Not Quiet on the Home Front

Military families, so often the ones to put a cheery face on war, are growing vocal … Frustrations became so bad recently at Fort Stewart, Ga., that a colonel, meeting with 800 seething spouses, most of them wives, had to be escorted from the session. “They were crying, cussing, yelling and screaming for their men to come back,” said Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort Stewart.

Quagmire is not a metaphor for Vietnam, but has a specific meaning. It is a strategic defeat. The occupier can’t declare victory and can’t withdraw.