Iraq: The election issue that’s MIA

last updated 8 January 2015

A funny thing happened on the way to the 2008 presidential primaries, said Noah Feldman in The New York Times Magazine. “Iraq has become the great disappearing issue.” Just a few months ago, voters and candidates alike were preoccupied with the war. What changed? With fewer Americans being killed in Iraq and violence down, the war issue has lost some of its urgency. At the same time, when the rhetoric is stripped away, the two parties’ prescriptions for Iraq are not that different. “The leading doves say they want to leave, but not too fast; the hawks claim they want to stay, but not too long.” Americans have moved on, even if the war hasn’t, said Tom Raum in the Associated Press. After nearly five years, “Iraq fatigue” has set in. Voters are turning their attention to “the growing economic tensions at home,” from rising gas prices to the spiraling cost of health care.

The media insists the war is now a “secondary issue,” said Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard. But that’s wishful thinking from liberal war critics who would rather not talk about how President Bush’s troop surge is succeeding. In fact, Sen. John McCain, an early proponent of the surge, is now being rewarded by Republican voters. And if he’s the nominee, independent voters also will likely favor him in November. Democrats are “in denial,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Having bet wrong on the surge, it seems “they have simply stopped thinking about Iraq.” When they address the subject at all, it’s to “deny manifest reality” and insist the U.S. is not making meaningful progress and should pull out.

Most Republicans would also rather change the subject, said Dan Simpson in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Surge or no, polls show that most Americans think the invasion of Iraq was a horrible mistake—one that has cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars. And while some leading Democrats went along, Iraq will always be thought of as President Bush’s war. That’s why for Bush’s fellow Republicans, “nothing could come as a bigger relief than to be let off the hook.” Just this week, Iraq’s defense minister said a substantial U.S. troop presence would be needed until 2012. The American people deserve a say in that, said The New York Times. No matter who succeeds Bush, “Iraq will be a central challenge—perhaps the central challenge.” Each candidate, therefore, has an obligation to keep talking to the American people about when, and how, they’d bring this sad chapter in American history to a close.