8th District rivals battle over Iraq, Afghanistan
The U.S. military's ongoing presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is yet another issue on which voters in the 8th Congressional District need not fear about having to choose among nearly identical positions from three candidates for the seat.
For Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean of Barrington, the drawing down of forces in Iraq is occurring at just the right time, with the U.S. having now done nearly all it can for the people of that nation to rule themselves. She believes the U.S. can also successfully train Afghan forces to handle their own security.
Republican Joe Walsh of McHenry agrees with the current progress in Iraq, but believes Bean is taking credit she doesn't deserve for the military getting to this point. He sees her as part of a Democratic Party that has never truly acknowledged the threat of international terrorism.
"I think she's part of a mindset that doesn't recognize the danger," Walsh said. "If you believe we're in a global war on terror which I believe we are and which I believe our president doesn't believe we are Iraq and Afghanistan are central fronts in that war."
Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer of Lindenhurst believes all U.S. troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan should be pulled out as soon as it would be possible to conduct a large-scale withdrawal. He argues the U.S. should have never gone to war in the two Middle Eastern countries and shouldn't be there now.
"These wars of aggression are the worst thing our country has done in a generation," Scheurer said.
His only acknowledgment of appropriate military force was that terrorist camps in Afghanistan should have been bombed after 9/11, an action he says should have taken about a week.
While the search for Osama bin Laden was and is appropriate to America's national security, Scheurer believes the approach taken was completely wrong.
"You don't distort and warp an entire country to catch one criminal," Scheurer said.
He believes the U.S. has one final responsibility in the two war-torn nations to grant refugee status to those who feel in danger and set up camps there to protect them, probably near a border.
"It would be the beginning of our return to the community of nations," Scheurer said.
He particularly criticized Walsh and members of the tea party movement who argue for the wars while arguing against higher taxes.
"Joe Walsh is a Republican and Republicans can't add," Scheurer said. "If people now think Iraq and Afghanistan was a mistake, they should consider the only candidate who's consistently spoken out about them for the past nine years."
But Walsh believes the money necessary to conduct these wars already has been paid by taxpayers.
"In our limited view of government, this is one function government can and should do," Walsh said. "Is it worth the cost we're going to incur? If we're attacked, we don't sit there and have that debate."
Walsh's goal is to make both countries U.S. allies, defending themselves. He concedes that the work will be tougher in Afghanistan a nation of tribes but that the U.S. must leave it better than it found it.
Bean said she's visited Iraq multiple times and been pleased by the progress there, but disagrees that the responsibility in Afghanistan extends as far as Walsh sees it.
"Nation-building is not our mission," Bean said. "I think it's our mission to add stability to the country, training Afghan security forces to handle the issue themselves."
The 8th Congressional District includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties.