John Nichols: A Debate On Iraq Benefits Obama

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/27-1

A Debate On Iraq Benefits Obama

by John Nichols


A blistering economic crisis may be the all-encompassing issue of the moment.

But the war in Iraq still defines the difference between John McCain and Barack Obama.

McCain remains the true believer in that occupation, the man who really does want to carry it forward until some ill-defined "victory" is obtained - even if that takes a hundred years.

Obama remains the doubter who -- as he went out of his way to note in Friday night's first debate between the two men who would be president -- spoke out against launching the war six years ago and remains committed to drawing it down.

These were the bottom lines of a debate that could have been all about economics but that ultimately ended up being a very serious, and at times very edgy, discourse about war and peace.

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John McCain debated as the man who wanted this war six years ago and who wants it to continue even now.

Barack Obama debated as the man who won the Democratic nomination in large part because he had the wisdom to oppose launching an unnecessary preemptive war, and who scored points throughout the primary fight by promising to renew America's commitment to diplomacy.

The two men were speaking to a country that is rightly worried about a stumbling economy.

But the country worries, as well, about foreign-policy stumbles.

And the invasion and occupation of Iraq remains the worst of those stumbles in recent American history.

There will be plenty of spin about what was said in the first presidential debate.

But the focus on the war in Iraq, a war that most Americans think was a mistake and want to see finished, means that -- while the night saw no knockout blows -- it was Obama who got the debate he wanted and needed.