The thing I learned from last night’s debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and from the post-debate news coverage provided by many of the major networks, websites, and newspapers, is that Iraq is no longer The Issue for Democratic voters. I’ve heard this a lot recently. Voters care more about the economy and health care than they do about the war, so the focus has shifted from what was once the party’s primary cause for concern.
When Iraq finally entered into last night’s discussion, in the final third of the debate, Obama had his best moments pointing out his early opposition to the war, while Clinton failed to justify her vote to authorize the use of force and her refusal to support an amendment that would have made the Bush administration exhaust diplomatic options before dropping bombs. This was clearly the most contentious, spirited argument of the night. However, when the time game to analyze each candidate’s performance, the main theme seemed to be that while Obama drew the clearest distinction between himself and Clinton on judgment as it pertains to the Iraq issue — adding to his argument that he doesn’t want to just end the war, but wants to end the mindset that got us into the war in the first place — it didn’t matter much because Americans no longer consider Iraq to be that big of a deal.
This reflects a disturbing trend in the way Americans prioritize issues. We only care about ourselves and what happened to us ten minutes ago last Thursday. That is the scope of our historical perspective, and it’s the thing that has made us a global parasite. We somehow buy into the idea that “the surge is working” because it is the latest line of bullshit run up the flagpole by politicians and the media that covers them. We so desperately want to return to the selfish, egocentric ways that make us feel comfortable that we accept as progress the idea of at least 39 dead Americans and 599 dead Iraqi civilians in the month of January. We salute and go about our days worrying about interest rates and the current state of our investment portfolios. Never mind the emotional agony of the 638 families that lost something more valuable than a house or an earlier-than-planned retirement.
Just this morning, at least 68 Iraqis died in a two separate suicide bombings in Baghdad. The bombings were carried out by woman thought be trained by al-Qaida in Iraq, a group that didn’t exist before the American-led invasion. I read in The Associated Press report about a man who had been hit by shrapnel in the chest and leg and feared for the life of his friend, who disappeared in the wake of the blast. “I just remember the horrible scene of the bodies of dead and wounded people mixed with the blood of animals and birds, then I found myself lying in a hospital bed,” he said.
When you’re cursing the state of your 401k — even if you’re worrying about getting a second job to feed your kids or to pay medical bills or having to sell your home at a loss — think about living through something like what happened this morning at those markets in Baghdad. Then imagine how you’d feel living in a place where the specter of that possibility haunts you day in and day out. If that doesn’t provide the perspective necessary to correctly contextualize the Iraq War, nothing will, and I’m sorry to say that our country is even more lost than I had feared.
I understand that there are real economic and health-care issues being faced by people in this country every day. And these issues are important, don’t get me wrong. But the idea that my ability to get a good mortgage deal or to see a doctor is somehow more important than the dead bodies that continue to mount as a result of an American invasion and occupation going on its fifth year is sickening to me. Can we please get some perspective?
Given the option of living in a country experiencing a moderate recession, where the biggest crises are “slow economic growth,” irresponsible lenders and Mexicans mowing lawns on the cheap, or living in a country where I can get blown up while taking a walk in even the most well-secured city, I’d take the economic uncertainty and migrant laborers every time. To even suggest that our social inconveniences are at the same level of seriousness as the perpetual violence in a country torn apart by a war we created for unjustified reasons is a level of narcissism of which we should all be ashamed.