Such occupation and oppression might be defended as a necessary evil (unless more blatantly racist terms are indulged in), but the self-serving maneuvers of leading politicians are simply evil. The Democrats recently exposed that the Republicans would prefer to 'support the troops' with words only and not their wallets. The GOP originally opposed spending $50 billion for 10 years of better education benefits for veterans on the grounds that it would require increasing taxes, yet $165 billion more war funding was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, little real debate, and no strings attached. The Democratic Party decided to fund the occupations well into next year to avoid the embarassment of voting for more money for this unpopular war around the time of the general election.

Meanwhile, the remaining candidates are nearly tied in their petty mediocrity. Hillary Clinton is squabbling for votes in Florida that won't be enough for her to win, and that she clearly is not entitled to under Democratic Party rules anyway. Obama has been busy denouncing his former pastor and generally moving away from his primary campaign rhetoric of change, negotiation, and peace, trying to become yet another Clinton Democrat. And McCain has been left to parry a flurry of endorsements from Catholic-hating evangelicals, while contemplating who should replace him should he drop dead in office. His decision to bypass public financing after campaigning for clean elections caused no media firestorm, nor did his complete reversal on banning torture. But we can count on him not being a flip-flopper on Iraq: he has expressed his willingness to support the war into the next century and beyond.

And so, it promises to be a VERY close race, where the American people will have to decide who scares them less: A black man who talks a lot but says little, or a white flip-flopping warmonger backed by apocalyptic Christians. Personally, Obama scares me less, because he might actually end this war and avoid starting too many other ones. He MIGHT even win, if America's ongoing legacy of racism isn't too great a factor. But the election wouldn't even be close if Obama would press strong, popular stands against the war, against corporate profiteering, and for real energy alternatives.