Iraq expected to be key issue in Friday’s presidential debate

The Clarion-Ledger, 9/24/8

The Iraq war likely will be one of the key issues debated Friday night on the University of Mississippi campus, but opinions already are strong here.

Tony Fein, a linebacker on the Ole Miss football team, was 19 when he went to Iraq to work as a recon scout. His experience in Baghdad gave him a newfound appreciation for being an American, he said.

“A lot of people in other countries don’t have what we have here,” he said.

Fein said he “definitely would not be here today” if he had not served in the military in 2003 and 2004.

He generally supports the war and hopes the next president – either Democratic Sen. Barack Obama or Republican Sen. John McCain – will “work to find the quickest way to end it peaceably.”