t r u t h o u t - Frank Rich: One War Lost, Another to Go

CLICK TO READ: t r u t h o u t - Frank Rich: One War Lost, Another to Go:

THE UNKNOWN CANDIDATE: Overlooked in the recent brouhaha over the run-up to and run-down of the Iraq war -- the war which had nothing to do with the original threat to the United States by Al Qaeda as evidenced on 9/11 -- overlooked is that original threat: Al Qaeda. As more and more republicans facing re-election race to distance themselves from Bush and his growingly unpopular "stay the course" Iraq policy, as more and more of their constituents cry for an end to the Iraq war, and as the Bush administration spends all of it's time trying to defend it's defenseless Iraqi war decisions by saturating the airwaves with more lies (witness Rummy's performance on Wolf Blitzer this morning) -- no one seems to be thinking about the orginal, presumably real problem. Even if we extricate ourselves from Iraq tomorrow, we will still need to effectively deal with the ongoing threat of Osama Bin Ladin and company. Frank Rich delves into this issue in the above article. It is well worth the read.

RICH: "If anyone needs further proof that we are racing for the exits in Iraq, just follow the bouncing ball that is Rick Santorum. A Republican leader in the Senate and a true-blue (or red) Iraq hawk, he has long slobbered over President Bush, much as Ed McMahon did over Johnny Carson. But when Mr. Bush went to Mr. Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania to give his Veterans Day speech smearing the war's critics as unpatriotic, the senator was M.I.A...."

"...The arguments about how we got into Mr. Bush's war and exactly how we'll get out are also important. But the damage from this fiasco will be even greater if those debates obscure the urgency of the other war we are losing, one that will be with us long after we've left the quagmire in Iraq."