News-Record.com

I have some unasked-for advice for each presumptive presidential nominee.

John McCain refuses to concede that the Iraq war was a dreadful mistake, and he should. Most of the rationales for the war turned out to be pure hogwash.

Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs, did not align himself with al-Qaida and was not responsible for Sept. 11. Failure to concede this is not straight talking.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, will only reluctantly say that things are getting better since we sent additional troops to Iraq. He does point out, correctly, that things were improving before the “surge,” the Anbar awakening and the shutdown of some Shia militias, for example. However, he can’t bring himself to say he might have been mistaken on the surge.

Still, not everything is going well in our two wars, as the latest events in Afghanistan are troubling. Any improvements in Iraq are more than counterbalanced by the deterioration of the Afghan’s government’s security posture and the casualties of our service personnel.

This war should have been finished years ago, before another, unnecessary war was begun. On that important point, Barack Obama was absolutely correct and doesn’t need my advice.

Harvey B. Herman
Greensboro