If one listened to the most interesting portion of the recent Fox News Republican debate, the part where they were debating whether the escalation, aka the "surge," in Iraq is achieving progress or not, there were two sides, both of which essentially failed to realistically present the options available to us. On one side was Ron Paul, who basically said we need to get out of Iraq for our own best interest and not worry much about what we leave behind. The other side was most forcefully represented by Mike Huckabee, who said that since we broke it, it is a matter of honor that we fix Iraq before we leave. Republican spinmeister Frank Luntz declared that Huckabee’s comment won in the focus groups. (link)
Although one has to give Huckabee credit for some creative spin, in a real debate someone should have challenged him on the underlying assumption that maintaining the current escalation is the best way to go about fixing Iraq. Unfortunately, the profound silence on this point during the Republican debate mirrors that of most of the traditional media in the larger public debate about the escalation.
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