Watching the end of tonight’s debate, I am struck, again, how both presidential candidates and the moderator left the question of Iraq just dangling in the breeze. Aside from the now-shopworn exchanges — “Obama doesn’t recognize the Surge worked,” “McCain didn’t have the judgment to stay out of Iraq in the first place” — there was absolutely no discussion of how we were going to bring our 140,000 troops home, and what kind of country we are going to leave behind. Do we as a nation even care anymore? If not, what did our 4,180 servicemen and women die for?

Long gone is the talk about rebuilding Iraq. Not even a reference to how we are going to rebuild a military abused and squandered in a mishandled war of choice. McCain has the nerve to say Iraqis are living “normal lives” socially, politically and economically. I guess, for a man who said during the primaries and as recently as last month that the fundamentals of our economy were “sound,” an estimated 30 percent unemployment rate in Iraq is “normal.” That residents of Baghdad, getting four hours or less of electricity five years after the U.S invasion, is “normal.” That daily bomb blasts, the crippling corruption and greed , cross-border bombing of northern Iraq by a US ally , all “normal.” Residents of Baghdad and other cities living in cement fortresses, on virtual lock-down to ensure McCain’s precious Surge success — Normal?

Meanwhile, more than 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have sought healthcare from the VA since the war began. The heroic men and women Obama and McCain so superficially laud in their debates are suffering in very large numbers emotionally and physically and no doubt financially today. Again, the word “veteran” not uttered once tonight. This too, might be “normal,” considering the unnerving ability of this country to marginalize our veterans once they fight our wars. But it shouldn’t be. I expected more in 2008. I think veterans and their families did too.