Candidates won't risk votes as troops risk lives--'Whatever happened to the war'?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/13/raw.politics.foreman/index.html

For months, it was all the rage on the campaign trail. Democratic contenders never missed a chance to pound on the Bush administration, rip the Republicans and remind voters over and over how badly things were going in Iraq.

Republicans, as often as not, staunchly insisted that distant battles and homeland security went hand-in-hand. Day after day, stop after stop, the war was the focus of all things presidential.

Now, the war is little more than a distant echo in most stump speeches. The Democrats are generally saying little more than "We should get out as soon as we can." The Republicans are hardly mentioning it.

Here's an inconvenient truth: Our fellow citizens are risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out a difficult scheme, which was approved by both Republicans and Democrats; yet our political leaders will not even risk even their careers to talk about it now.
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Pathetic huh?

it is sheer cowardice

Being an election year they want the war to go low key so as not to harm the republiCONs chances of stealing another election in the fall.

With the 'surge' supposedly doing better, it's all the GOPers WOULD want to talk about...

If it's not on "the news," it doesn't exist. There are a couple of very insidious corollaries to this:

1. "If it's on the news, it must be true,"
2. "If it's important enough, it will be on the news."

No mention at all of the war = simpler for Republics to campaign. (Simpler for Democrats, too, but that's a Heretical Notion.)

Welcome to DU!
All Glories and Splendor to Philosoraptor, who knows quite well that only The Fool may tweak the King's nose.

even when it is brought up she never says it was WRONG! :grr:

although she may be described as a strong and intelligent woman, she doesn´t have the sense to speak the truth.

if you base all of your decisions on politics instead of what is right. She sickens me.

:puke:

Who knew?:wow:

For years, the Repugnicans were the big dogs...the Democrats were puppies...whenever they made a noise, the big dogs would swarm on the little ones and send them running. The GOOP used the corporate media as their stick as anytime the Democrats dared to speak out...especially on military issues, the shitstorm on hate radio and television would all but overwhelm most. Remember when Dick Durbin compared Gitmo to a consentration camp? All the shit that ensued? How dare him speak the truth...they're ridiculed and then ignored. The same goes for a Jim McDermott or any person with a (D) that dares to question anything military.

The problem we now face is that while the Repugnicans still aren't the big dog, the stick remains. Democrats aren't sure how big of a dog they are, how strong is their bite or how secure they are. Many are afraid that if they speak out, the corporate media stick will whack them and send them yelping. They fear that any questioning of Iraq or the military will result in a shitstorm of "un-American" charges that could hurt them in the election...or so they think. This only gets worse when the corporate media pretends that the "surge is working" and that Iraq is not longer a big topic. The only reason is the information from inside is very limited...much is percolating under the surface we are totally ignorant about and it could come back and bite us in the ass, soon.

This very much reminds me of the Fall of '67...the debate about if we were "winning" in Vietnam was the rage. Hell, every week Huntly and/or Brinkley showed us we killed yet another 2,000 NVA...the fighting had quieted down, so we surely must be winning and our puppets in Saigon were taking control of the situation. Then a little thing called Tet came along.

Iraq may not be the story today, but does anyone doubt it won't rise up in some form or fashion over the next year? We're one mosque bombing or assination from the next round of bloodletting and our troops are in the middle. The only reason Iraq has faded is this corporate media really can't report it accurately (with a regime more than happy with no news at all) and the Economy has surpassed it as a bigger threat to most Americans. Also most realize the two are linked...the economy will remain in the shitters as long as our troops remain bogged down in Iraq.