Even the RW Murdochian WSJ says so.
It's the Economy Now,
But May Be Iraq Later
January 25, 2008 8:09 a.m.
The Morning Brief, a look at the day's biggest news, is emailed to subscribers by 7 a.m. every business day. Sign up for the e-mail here1.
With the stark headlines it has been generating and the scary implications for Americans' wallets, the economy has significantly overshadowed Iraq this primary season. But there is good reason to think the war will shift into a more defining role in the general election, and for the politician eventually sent to the White House.
The latest snapshot of voter thinking from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll does indeed confirm the economy as the No. 1 campaign issue, with 43% of respondents calling "job creation and economic growth" their first2 or second priority for the government -- up 15 percentage points from a month ago, and more than 10 percentage points higher than Iraq and health care. But feelings about the war run strong. Despite the diminished level of violence in Iraq credited to the surge of troops sent last year, when asked whether the removal of Saddam Hussein was or wasn't worth "the number of U.S. military casualties and the financial cost of the war3," respondents said it wasn't by a 59%-to-32% margin. That, the Journal says, is the most negative result since the pollsters began asking the question five years ago.
The Republican presidential candidates were asked about that result at last night's debate in Florida by Tim Russert, who noted the eventual Democratic nominee will tell the country "we should get out." All the leading contenders voiced support for President Bush's policies in Iraq and suggested the U.S. shouldn't withdraw its forces until they can, in the words of John McCain, "return with honor" -- this at a time when Iraqi officials have said their own forces probably won't be able to assume control of the country until well into the next decade. Come the general election, the Republican and Democratic nominees can argue that either's policies are better or worse for the economy, a subject that can be esoteric for some voters beyond the obvious meaning of tax cuts. But on Iraq, voters will have a more definitive choice.
Within Iraq, the hegemony of American forces remains a subject that is much more sensitive than on the U.S. campaign trail, but the two arenas of debate are starting to merge. As it prepares to negotiate a bilateral agreement delineating U.S. forces' role in Iraq, the Bush administration plans to "insist that the government in Baghdad give4 the United States broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law," administration and military officials tell the New York Times. This is likely to inflame an already volatile political situation in Baghdad, where the reconciliation between Iraq's religious and ethnic factions envisioned by the surge strategy has yet to materialize. It is also opposed by Democrats, especially the party's presidential candidates, who fear the White House is trying to "bind the next president by locking in Mr. Bush's policies and a long-term military presence," the Times notes.
Reparation of the economy and the war in Iraq will both play prominent roles in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address next week. And with a bipartisan economic-stimulus package now heading to his desk, the president will likely claim some success on both fronts. An operation now getting underway in northern Iraq may offer a test of his assertions. The Iraqi franchise of al Qaeda has, according to warnings from the U.S. military, maintained a strong presence in the city of Mosul, even as the surge has been said to have helped drive the group away from Baghdad. An apparent bomb-making factory in an abandoned building there exploded Wednesday, killing at least 34 people in the area and wounding more than 220, and a suicide bombing yesterday killed a police chief and two other officers when they were inspecting the devastation. Today, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his government launched a major offensive again the insurgents in Mosul5, the Associated Press reports. And putting the current U.S.-Iraqi strategy's credibility on the line, he promised it would be "decisive."
(Knute's Comment: Either Mosul or more like Fallujah will be our Bien Phu when our newfound "friends turn on us in combat)
http://online.wsj.com/article/the_morning_brief.html
