What Barack Obama gets about Iraq, rural America, that John McCain doesn't

One of the more disturbing elements in a king’s ransom of problems with the U.S. war in Iraq is the indisputable fact that rural Americans are doing a disproportionate share of the fighting.

Most of us in western Iowa, regardless of position on the war or political affiliation, just know this. We see it in our small towns, anecdotally — and the Associated Press and other reliable sources have documented it. Does John McCain get it?

Read the complete text of an analysis piece I wrote for Iowa Independent.com, a new Web venture from the Center for Independent Media.