The Iraq Argument

John McCain has won the Iraq argument. The disagreement on Iraq between McCain and Barack Obama, indeed between Democrats and Republicans, was not about the future of American "neocolonialism" or about the candidates' sympathy for the Marines and soldiers eager to return home. It was about the strategic benefit of keeping active U.S. troops in the War. John McCain believed that a continued American troop presence would hasten Iraq's progress toward national security and political reconciliation. Barack Obama thought a speedy withdrawal would best achieve that goal. So there is no confusion on this point, let us consider the following:

Our troops have performed brilliantly in Iraq, but no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war. That's why I have introduced a plan to not only stop the escalation of this war, but begin a phased redeployment that can pressure the Iraqis to finally reach a political settlement and reduce the violence.

The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops," Mr. Obama said. "Not in six months or one year - now.

“John McCain has won the Iraq argument.”

Without a doubt. Too bad for him that oil, jobs and the economy have overtaken Iraq in order of importance in the minds of voters.

Sen. Obama certainly seems to be a complicated man. I sense he is adjusting to newly acquired information. That's fine, no objection there. It's the content of his character that I'm still plumbing. By what moral compass does he chart his course?

I think there is a time when you have to ask yourself basic questions and insist on answers. Protection of life from birth to natural death, justice for all (not segments of society), the ability to understand the difference between civil disobedience and criminal conduct, the ability to know when a deal “is too good to be true,” the judgment to know when you've heard hate speech. These are the true questions I have and those I must have answers for.

I disagree with John McCain's positions on immigration, the environment, his half-hearted endorsement of the two Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito (whom he now says he thinks are swell and whom I see as the hope of the nation), but I think he has a fairly transparent past and he doesn't dissemble — he puts it out there for anyone to criticize (and we do).

I don't think we have a choice (unless or until Mr. Obama can come up with the same transparency), but to go with John McCain or Ron Paul or Ralph Nader.

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