The Iraq War is taking centerstage in the Presidential campaign this week. All three remaining candidates suspend their stumping to stake their positions on the war through carefully crafted queries to General David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, in their highly charged testimony to Congress on the state of the war. It is political theater at its highest, and, of course something of a farce, made even more so by the political elbowing of the candidates. But these hearings have the virtue of returning the focus on matters of war and peace.
For many the primary issue of the 2008 elections will be the economy. From my perspective, this is indicative of what is wrong with this country. Our priorities are wrong. We are sending our young people to kill and be killed, and voting our pocketbooks? There is no higher priority than war.
I wonder, though, if many analysts have misread American's engagement in the war. There has been a bemoaning of the lack of coverage of the war which, the media argues, is driven by a lack of interest. The American public has even been accused of an ostrich mentality, and while this is probably true, I'm not so sure the interpretation is accurate. Personally I was relatively engaged leading up to the last Congressional hearings on the war issue. Patraeus and the administration laid out a strategy and asked for time.
I consented to give that time. In the first place, I realized I really didn't have any choice anyway. They were going to do what they were going to do. I also recognized that situation would not hold true when the time was up and the next report was due, in the middle of a Presidential campaign. My vote will be cast based on the war. I haven't made up my mind yet. I want to hear all sides make their case as fully and vigorously as possible. These are serious matters that require serious attention.
If that attention had been paid before the war we almost certainly wouldn't be in the position we find ourselves in today. There was no vigorous debate, but a rush to war, and not just by an easily scapegoated administration. The American people were as quick to war as their leaders. We wanted a little payback, to put a little American whoop ass on the towel heads who crashed the symbols of our financial prosperity. We didn't want to talk. We wanted to fight.
Well now it is time to talk.
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