The Right Disappeared The Iraq War. We Can’t Let Them.

Remember the Iraq War? For the good part of the previous decade, it was the defining issue, impacting both foreign and domestic policy. And then… nothing.

It’s sort of amazing how the right has been able to both maneuver themselves away from association with the Iraq War and – on the surface at least – into some sort of dovish movement that should be taken seriously on foreign policy and national security.

We shouldn’t allow this.

Mitt Romney, in his 2007-8 incarnation, was among the warmongering hordes. Romney opposed any withdrawal from Iraq and was among the supporters of the initial invasion. That is, when he had a chance to take the right position on the war, he chose the easy and wrong answer. At the same time, Barack Obama had openly opposed what he described as a “dumb war.”

Even measured against the positions of those who eventually turned against the war based on the lack of WMD and the Bush administration’s poor execution, Romney sticks out for his adherence to failed policies. This year he lamented the draw-down of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Still, he surrounds himself with Iraq War agitators and bellicose warmongers like John Bolton and Dan Senor.

Romney has shown himself to be, as Jon Huntsman described, a “well-lubricated weather vane.” That would likely mean he would continue his previous pattern of easily being led around by the nose. I can’t imagine Romney having the fortitude to go against the warmongers, and his rhetoric in the election on key issues like Iran shows that he hasn’t done so when given the chance.

Despite their flowery rhetoric and the complicity of the mainstream press, the Republicans – and the affiliated conservative movement – is the Iraq War party. They still are. And that’s why they are so dangerous.