I was just watching MSNBC and Pat Buchanan was giving to McCain advice on how to beat Obama.
He used the expression "wave the bloody shirt" and suggested that McCain should say that Obama wants to dishonor the deaths of U.S. soldiers by pulling out of Iraq. I don't know if Buchanan feels that way personally or if it was just "advice", but I got HOT!
Obama should WELCOME this line of attack in a debate and respond thusly:
Remember when the war started and it was oh-so-American to cheer on our soldiers in this illegal war? We always showd the names and faces of dead soldiers and played Taps over the graphic of an American flag? Remember that? What happened when no WMDs were found and chaos ensued? The Bush Administration FORBID the showing of the coffins of American soldiers! When it was inconvenient to them, they stopped showing the American people the cost of this blunder in order to prevent them for calling for an end to it.
And NOW, in order to prevent the few left who support it for calling for an end to it, they're willing to figuratively pile the coffins of those soldiers in American living rooms! It would be shameful (and ironic) for John McCain to resort to the same tactics that kept us in Vietnam for so long after it was truly lost:
"We can't leave or the deaths of those brave Americans will have been in vain."
It's a disgustingly cynical exploitation and Obama should be ready to counter it immediately and clearly. He should also make the point of saying "Why would I, as Commander In Chief continue to sacrifice lives, treasure and equipment to a war that I feel never should've been waged in the first place?".
Snatch McCain's "bloody shirt", fold it respectfully and hand it to the American people with the promise that this war will end soon!