This Sunday, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer had an important message for "the candidates, and the rest of us" this primary season.
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Download Schieffer: We interrupt American politics to ask this question: Does anyone remember the war in Iraq? [...]
Until John McCain accused Mitt Romney yesterday of favoring a timetable for withdrawing American forces there, a charge Romney vehemently denies, Republicans hardly mentioned the war.
That would force them to mention George Bush and frankly, they'd rather talk about Ronald Reagan.
Nor do Democrats bring it up. The surge of troops the President sent there last year reduced the violence and that raises questions about the Democrats' previous demands for an immediate American drawdown.
Yet, the war goes on. Last week, 38 Iraqis died and hundreds were injured as a massive bomb went off in the town of Mosul. The Iraqi president promised to "do something," neglecting to mention he had been urged to "do something" in Mosul for months BEFORE the bomb went off.
For the record: While the Iraqis have been trying to get their act together, the war has claimed 4,094 American military and civilian lives and left more than 29,000 wounded.
Iraq may be off the front pages, but it is not over. The candidates and the rest of us would do well to remember that. ... (more)
Although there has been a few exceptions, it's evident that Iraq has been pushed to the back burner in this campaign so far and it really shouldn't have. Iraq and Afghanistan are both still a mess, the surge is not working and it is unsustainable for much longer before the troop levels will have to start coming down. The Iraqi government has still only managed to meet three of the 18 benchmarks President Bush promised they would be held to last year. Political 'progress' in Iraq is starting to look "more like political ‘regress,'" and despite all that Gen. Petraeus is still saying all he needs is one more F.U. to get it right.
The only reason the Republican front-runners are currently feuding over who gets to own Bush's war is because the media is letting them get away with perpetuating the myth that the surge is working. The Democrats would do well to heed Schieffer's advice, quit with the intraparty squabbling and force the media focus on more important things, not the least of which being our troops still in harm's way. Not doing so has consequences.
