In just a few hours John McCain and Barack Obama will meet for their third and final debate. Given the anxiety that exists tonight in America, this debate will likely focus on the economy and our current credit crisis. I won’t blame the media nor will I blame the candidates for spending their time on this issue. However, I believe voters and the candidates ignore, at great peril, the war in Iraq and a debate about the sickening mentality that led our country into this deadly conflict.

Let’s not forget about the war in Iraq.

To the troops who watch tonight’s debate in far away and unfamiliar places we say thank you for your service and we’ll get you home soon.

I just took a screen shot of the Republican National Committee’s website. Notice the countdown clock still reads 925 days, 01 hours, 07 minutes, 00 seconds since Barack Obama has last visited Iraq.

Did the RNC miss something? Wasn’t Obama in Iraq this past week meeting with Iraqi leaders, soldiers and commanders on the ground?

Why hasn’t the RNC changed their countdown clock?

John McCain is running as someone who stood up to President Bush on the Iraq War. He has attempted to run as an independent maverick, often times referring to himself as a critic of the Bush administration’s handling on the war. Well, this video picks that argument apart statement-by-statement. It is true that McCain has noted his frustration on the implementation of the war over the past six years, but as the video record shows, he never really stood up against Bush & Company.

I have had many debates over the past couple months with some very smart people who support John McCain and they have tried to justify their support by saying that Barack Obama doesn’t have the judgment yet to be President of the United States. Well, you want to talk about judgment…watch this video. The evidence could not be clearer.

Yesterday, my brother and I did a couple spots on MSNBC to celebrate our nation’s independence. Here they are, hope you enjoy.

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MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann delivered a scathing commentary on John McCain during last night’s broadcast. My jaw almost hit the floor. You can read the transcript here.

Yesterday John McCain, the self proclaimed expert on Iraq and foreign policy, told an audience in Wisconsin that we “have drawn down to pre-surge levels” in Iraq.

John McCain is wrong.

Before the surge, there were 135,000 US troops in Iraq. Today there are 155,000. Last I checked 155,000 is greater than 135,000. Oops.

Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan has a new book out. And let’s just say it’s not exactly friendly to George Bush, Karl Rove, or any of the other knuckleheads who’ve been running our country for most of this century.

Putting aside the much more serious charge that the president and his team purposely mislead the nation into war with a coordinated propaganda campaign, I thought this find was symbolic of everything that is wrong with this administration. Via Jake Tapper:

Writes McClellan: “‘The media won’t let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,’ I heard Bush say. ‘You know, the truth is I honestly don’t remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don’t remember.’

“I remember thinking to myself, How can that be? How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”

And yet, McClellan concludes, “I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It’s the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true. And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious — political convenience…”

I honestly believe in this day and age that drug use, especially in a long gone youth is not a big deal. But deluding yourself into believe that said drug use didn’t even exist is emblematic of a much deeper problem with the truth. Something our president clearly isn’t a fan of.

John McCain doesn’t really understand foreign policy at all. He thinks having an American troop presence in Iraq for 100, 1000, or even 1,000,000 years is a good idea. Well, it ain’t. The now famous video of McCain stating that he wouldn’t mind having troops in Iraq for 100 years now has a friend. A **new video** of McCain from an appearance on Good Morning America has turned up where he said we should be in Iraq for one million years. He just doesn’t get it.

I just came across this piece by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) on The Huffington Post. I think it’s a really good tribute on this sad anniversary; five years in Iraq. I’ll post it verbatim.

Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the start of our nation’s invasion of Iraq. Again we are confronted with a sorrowful reminder of the consequences of that fateful decision by the death of four Americans killed in Baghdad, bringing the total number of American troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq to 4000. Each brave soul leaves behind devastated loved ones — sons, daughters, wives, husbands, moms, and dads. Each tragic loss leaves a void — a missing smile and loving embrace, an empty chair at the family dinner table — that can never be filled.

As we mark this painful milestone, we must ask ourselves: what is the moral justification for allowing this war to continue? Can we honestly say that the disastrous mission in Iraq warrants the sacrifice of more of our troops and the heartache and loss that so many loved ones continue to suffer?

In March of 2003, just prior to the invasion of Iraq, I made a final plea to the administration and my colleagues in Congress to avert a war that I believed would reap sorrowful consequences for our nation. In a speech entitled “We Stand Passively Mute”, I expressed my outrage at the fact that the United States Senate — the world’s greatest deliberative body — stood “for the most part-silent-ominously, dreadfully silent” on this monumental question.

Sadly, my worst fears have been realized. The decision to invade Iraq may go down as one of the gravest foreign policy blunders in our nation’s history.

Yet the war continues. American troop levels are higher than they were the day President Bush flamboyantly swooped onto the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to declare “Mission Accomplished.”

Four thousand Americans have now lost their lives, including twenty-three brave West Virginians. Almost thirty-thousand Americans have been wounded in action, many gravely, and countless thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed.

It is long past time to start bringing our troops home. Our men and women in uniform toppled the dictator. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There is scarce evidence that the Iraqi government is working to achieve the kind of political reconciliation that could end the continuing sacrifice of our brave men and women.

At this somber moment, let us resolve to take steps to finally bring this tragic war to an end. In 2008, the American people must not stand passively mute, as far too many of their leaders did five years ago. Let your voices be heard.