(HOST) Veteran ABC News correspondent and commentator Bill Seamans is predicting that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon make a come-back as the topic of greatest concern on the campaign trail.
(SEAMANS) Whatever direction the campaign takes after yesterday’s election, the candidates surely will have to rewrite their stump speeches – and take them beyond the familiar debate about the economy, immigration, health and something called "change." Those arguments have been heard so often with so little variation that we can almost repeat them like a mantra. Now the adversaries perhaps will start seriously debating a subject about which they have said relatively little – the almost forgotten war in Iraq and Afghanistan!
The campaign has pushed the war so far back in the public’s consciousness that daily casualties are hardly noticed and it has not interfered with such festive public activities like a ticker tape parade for football, not war heroes, the mardi gras in New Orleans and soon the college basketball thing called March Madness. Other than the suffering of the families of our dead and wounded, the closest that we the people have been involved by the Bush administration is at the gas pump.
But we foresee a renewal of the debate over how long our troops will stay in Iraq and Afghanistan and how many will be dribbled back home and when. President Bush said last week that he will not jeopardize security gains in Iraq by withdrawing our forces too fast – his statement was seen as a signal that troop reductions could slow or stop altogether this summer.
The catalyst that will focus the candidates’ attention on the war will be the impending visit of Gen. David Petraeus who is scheduled to give his second State of the War report to Congress in April. It’s expected, as President Bush has signaled, that Gen. Petraeus will call for a quote Pause unquote in the management of our troops on the ground.
That word "pause" is Pentagon-speak for "stop the withdrawal" just as the word "surge" has been used instead of the politically sensitive word "escalation." Indeed, the economic impact of the war, the continuing casualty toll, the extreme stress being suffered by our troops, the falloff in volunteerism and how many boots on the ground will be needed – and for how long – could emerge as the major campaign issue.
And while the spotlight is on the telegenic and cool military hero, Gen. David Petraeus – who exudes little doubt about his veiled political ability and conservatism – I wonder how many involved in the vicious Grand Old Party leadership dispute might imagine another "Eisenhower" and think, "Now wouldn’t Petraeus make a terrific Republican presidential candidate who could pull us all together and maybe even lead us to victory!"