Bored with war

Remember that whole Iraq War? Yeah, it’s still going on.\nEven if you follow the news closely, you might find it hard to believe that we are still in the grips of a never-ending war. A Pew Research Center study found that Americans are no longer aware of the number of Americans dead in Iraq, a trend matched by a steep decline in media coverage. \nThe most common explanation for this lack of awareness is a change of focus to the presidential campaign: The campaign has taken attention away from the story of the Iraq War. Yet shouldn’t the Iraq War be part of the campaign? As the defining foreign policy action by the previous administration, why is a reflection on the war in Iraq all but unmentionable during the campaign?\nJust take a look at the most recent spike in coverage: the five-year anniversary. All the “experts” were trotted out again to talk about the ways in which they were wrong, as if they still had any credibility left. All the “nutjobs” who were right about the injustice and stupidity of the Iraq War are relegated to marginal status. The war in Iraq exists only in a “Colbertian” conception: great idea or greatest idea? \nDespite the fact that foreign policy constitutes the largest portion of the president’s job description, the campaign has focused on process stories and petty trifles, like Sen. Barack Obama’s race, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s gender or Sen. John McCain’s age. The closest the campaign coverage ever gets to actually covering foreign policy involves finger-pointing over “experience,” and who has more.\nMeanwhile, the Iraq War continues unabated, while the situation deteriorates further. In the recent Basra offensive, populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has won major concessions without giving up anything, while we continue to back the crumbling and feckless al-Maliki government. Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s ultimatum quickly turned into a suggestion and eventually into a straight-up bribe, followed by capitulation. That guy is supposed to be our replacement Iraqi leader, but he appears no more legitimate than the militias he fights. The only thing that keeps him in place is the force of our own military, which he uses to achieve his own agendas.\nThe ongoing bleeding hasn’t stopped our presidential candidates from being ignorant about the subject. John “Foreign Policy Expert” McCain was wrong on al-Sadr being a marginal figure and doesn’t even know that it was Maliki who cried “uncle” in the most recent skirmish. Obama and Clinton profess a desire to end the war, but neither knows how to do it.\nOur eyes now glaze over when people talk about the Iraq War; it’s been five years after all. “Can’t we talk about something else?” the media seem to ask.\nNo. No. No. No. No.\nOur nation marched gleefully into a war cheered on by the media and foreign policy establishment, and now we have become bored with the monster we created. This is our war: Our taxes pay for it, and our silence perpetuates it.\nOne hundred thousand Iraqis are dead. So are more than 4,000 American troops. And for what? This is our legacy. We can’t afford to forget it.