Six young men, two very different stories, on the front page of Tuesday’s Boston Globe.

Readers would first be drawn to a story about the five sons of presidential candidate Mitt Romney under a four column photo and the headline, “Bantering for Dad.”

“Using sitcom-style chatter, Romney’s five sons blog to boost his campaign,” the sub-head explains. “The five toothy Romney boys — Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben, and Craig — are so like the Osmonds that a reader of their ‘Five Brothers’ blog might expect to learn about their perky sister Marie,” writes Globe Washington bureau chief Peter Canellos in his lede.

But then, off to the right side of the page, there’s the second story, under a one column headline that tells us, “Son of professor opposed to war is killed in Iraq.”

The professor is Andrew J. Bacevich of Boston University, “a persistent, vocal critic of the Iraq war,” who this week received word that his son, First Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, 27, died Sunday of wounds he suffered in a bomb explosion …

Like his son, Professor Bacevich was a soldier. A West Point graduate and a veteran of Vietnam and the first Gulf War, the retired lieutenant colonel taught at West Point and now teaches history and international relations at BU. He has written books on US diplomacy and military power and many op-ed articles critical of the war that has now claimed his son.

On March 1, in a Globe op-ed column, the senior Bacevich wrote of the Iraq war that “our reckless flirtation with preventive war qualifies as not only wrong, but also stupid. Indeed, the Bush Doctrine poses a greater danger to the United States than do the perils it supposedly guards against.” And on March 1, Bacevich proposed that Congress renounce preventive war, consider armed force to be an instrument of last resort and require Congressional authorization for the use of force as required by the Constitution.

Despite his father’s opposition to the war, Lieutenant Bacevich “felt it was the important thing to do, regardless of the war that was going on,” said his sister, Kathy Bacevich. Their father, she said, “would never discourage my brother from doing what he wanted to do.”

On Monday, the senior Bacevich’s students were taking an exam in a course he taught called The American Military Experience, which included a discussion of the relationship between citizenship and the obligation of military service, the Globe said.

That obligation may have at some point occurred to candidate Romney’s blogging heirs as well, although none has served in the military. One of the five, whose ages range from 25 to 37, said Sunday on 60 Minutes he regretted it and his father, who says as little as he can about Iraq, confided on the same program he had no military service because he was in college and later a Mormon missionary to France during the war. But in fairness, it should be pointed out Romney shares a lack of military service with most presidential aspirants of both parties.

At any rate, the blog, “full of travel photos, gentle ribbing and behind-the scenes looks at some Very Romney holidays,” is considered to be at the heart of the Romney campaign strategy which is aimed at contrasting the Brady Bunch domesticity of the once married Romney with some of this opponents.

Professor Bacevich sought to shelter his son from his views on the war. The Globe reported that when he was interviewed recently, Bacevich “had requested that his son’s service in Iraq not be mentioned — both to limit unwanted attention on his son and to separate the father’s opinion from the heavy personal stakes.”

But, said William Keylor, a colleague at BU, “Service to country was obviously a family trait. I always had the impression he was terribly proud of his son and the service he was providing.”

Posted by Dick Ahles at May 15, 2007 07:20 PM

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