To the editor:

The central, undeniable fact in the presidential campaign is that John McCain fully supported the Bush-Cheney leadership in starting an all-out war against Iraq for reasons now proven to have been false.

When a reporter, the late Tim Russert, asked McCain if he would have gone to war even knowing there were not WMD’s, he answered “yes” without missing a beat (Ellen Goodman, Journal-World, July 26).

McCain and Bush showed a shocking lack of good judgment and leadership for which we are now paying the price in thousands of lives lost and even more thousands wounded and crippled, not to mention the trillions of dollars of debt that future generations will have to pay.

Meanwhile, the main culprits – the al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and their followers – seem stronger than ever. By contrast, Barack Obama had the foresight and good judgment to oppose the war in Iraq from the very beginning.

McCain, doubtless a strong personality, simply will not admit he was wrong in supporting Bush’s war against Iraq, regardless of the horrific price we paid and are still paying and will continue to pay for many years to come. No wonder our economy is now in such chaos.

McCain resembles a firefighter who, after stopping the fire he had helped to start, brags about his superior wisdom based upon his many years of experience.

Harold Piehler,
Lawrence