Bob Herbert is not my fav Times columnist. His writing tends to be contrived and unexciting. However, he was on the money yesterday when talking to a group of students in Madison:
Herbert suggested the current failure to protect our troops and end the war could be directly linked to the detachment most Americans feel toward the conflict.
Unlike wars of America's past, no taxes have been raised to fund the wars in the Middle East, no rationing has taken place, and no one is required to fight in the conflict, Herbert said, adding most Americans tend to ignore the conflict exists.
If the Democrats who stopped caring about the war once a Democrat was elected president wasn't bad enough, just look at the campaigns waged by the party who started the wars. Most Republicans don't reserve a minute for every day of campaigning (unscientific estimate) to discuss foreign policy.
Of the eleven "issues" Ron Johnson covers on his website, not one of them is foreign affairs. Although he has a brief section on "honoring our servicemen," the only mention of the wars Johnson gives is that he "will not endanger our men and women in uniform by voting to put in place artificial withdrawal timelines."
Neither Afghanistan or Iraq are mentioned once.