Get Ready For a War Party

I swear I feel as if I am living in a twilight zone. Up until the economy started tanking in 2007, the Iraq war was the single polarizing issue between the political parties. Now with economic concerns surpassing the war in most polls I suppose the Republicans sense this as their green light to jump on the pro-war bandwagon as the single most effective campaign issue for retaining the White House.

Frankly, I am annoyed when I read the poll numbers because the economy and the war are not entirely separate issues. I just hope most Americans realize the hundreds of billions of dollars we have poured into the war effort are connected to the economy. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they do.

I can also hope these concerns about the economy signify a desire among voters to place more emphasis on issues here at home, in each of our 50 states, instead of a massive dump of resources into Iraq. The last thing we need right now is for 70% of our voters, or even 50%, to believe the war issue is in the back seat. It's certainly shaping up as the front-and-center issue for Republicans.

The War Party is starting to lock and load.

Offering a preview of the general election campaign, President Bush sought on Friday to unify the Republican Party behind its presumptive nominee and said the contest would present the country with a stark ideological choice at a time of war.

[...]

Beginning with Mitt Romney, who withdrew from the race on Thursday, warning that he would not abet “the surrender to terror,” Republicans, including Mr. McCain and Vice President Dick Cheney, have warned darkly that the Democrats were ill-suited and ill-equipped to protect the nation, the same theme that Mr. Bush struck in his successful 2004 re-election campaign.

As blantantly offensive as this is, I expect this will be the Republican issue for 2008. If and when the economy continues to falter during the course of the campaign leading into November, the choice on the ballot will boil down to either four more years of the Bush war, or an economic focus on America coupled with what absolutely has to be a concrete plan to end a war which cannot be won.

I can only hope the rest of the American voters will see and hear this rhetoric and experience the same gut-wrenching repulsion as I do. John McCain has become nothing but a mouthpiece for the war machine.

“I guarantee you this: If we had announced a date for withdrawal from Iraq and withdrawn troops the way that Senator Obama and Senator Clinton want to do, Al Qaeda would be celebrating that they had defeated the United States of America and that we surrendered,” Mr. McCain said at a rally in Wichita. “I will never surrender.”

If moderate and liberal voters aren't motivated enough at this point, the fact that Karl Rove is supporting McCain and contributing financially to his campaign should be enough to tip us over the brink.

As for myself, I am beyond angry or livid. I am outraged.



Crossposted at Big Brass Blog