Iraq never came up at McCain town hall

I hope to be forgiven for posting this whole opinion piece but it's just too good to cut anywhere.

Iraq never came up at McCain town hall
Nashua Telegraph - Nashua,NH,USA
Published: Friday, June 20, 2008
Iraq never came up at McCain town hall
It was a perfectly beautiful day in Nashua when the faithful turned out to see John McCain last Thursday at Daniel Webster College. In Baghdad it was 101 degrees, expected to reach 113 by Monday.

With 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq facing mortal danger daily, braving the heat in body armor and in sandstorms, often going without food or sleep, and dealing with the toll of repeated tours, you'd think that their plight might warrant at least one question at McCain's town hall.

Former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman betrayed Republican anxiety over the war issue in his introductory remarks. While talking about the unforeseen challenges each new president faces, he used George Bush and 9/11 as an example. With a momentary pause he added: however you might feel about what the president did.

There were questions on education, immigration, health care, Social Security and college costs. One questioner was concerned about too much videogame censorship. It was fun to watch McCain's eyes glaze over as she went on at some length. I can't imagine he knows much about video gaming or cares. There was no discussion of Iraq, however.

On Primary Day last January, The Telegraph published a large front-page color picture of Senator McCain and I talking in front of City Hall. We were talking about how we both agreed that our democracy demands a healthy debate if we are to make the best choices for our country.

We haven't always had such debate when it was needed. In 2002, the U.S. Senate shirked its responsibility, spending 24 days debating the agriculture bill but only four on the war authorization.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska and a Vietnam vet, said it best. Speaking during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on "the surge," Hagel said:

"These young men and women that we put in Anbar Province, in Iraq, in Baghdad . . . they're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder. Don't hide anymore; none of us. That is the essence of our responsibility. If we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country."

If one truly cares about our soldiers and their families, how can one be silent? It would seem that the mostly Republican crowd and their candidate were happy to sweep the issue under the rug.

Dave Tiffany
Hollis
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/OPINION02/445067781/-1/opinion

Why not one question on Iraq or what is happening to our veterans? Not one question on the GI Bill? Not one question on PTSD, the VA law suit, suicides and attempted suicides? This is a shame and very telling about what McCain supporters don't care about.