Without Bush, Left Forgets Wars

It wasn't exactly back in the Crusades that opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was the left’s most passionate cause, uniting activists and voters alike. Then George W. Bush left office. Now, even though there are still around 130,000 troops in Iraq and 68,000 and counting in Afghanistan, those anti-war voices are silent, writes Byron York in the Washington Examiner.

Back in 2006, activists at the YearlyKos devised strategies not just to unseat Republicans, but to pressure Democrats to oppose the war. But in a straw poll at last week’s YearlyKos, attendees ranked ending the war dead last among their personal goals. Some, like Cindy Sheehan, are still banging the anti-war drum. “But her days are over,” York concludes. “For many liberal activists, opposing the war was really about opposing George W. Bush.” (More Cindy Sheehan stories.)