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The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
As the Vietnam War started to look like a hopeless quagmire in 1966, a Vermont senator named George Aiken famously suggested that America could save its troops by simply declaring victory and coming home — regardless of the actual situation on the ground. Aiken passed away in 1984, but his spirit seems to be guiding America’s COVID-19 policy as the second anniversary of the pandemic looms. From coast to coast, in red and blue states, governors and mayors are sometimes giddy in declaring victory over the coronavirus and racing to remove any remaining mask mandates and restrictions on public gat…