For George Bush, his administration and his party, the politics of the Iraq war have always trumped the reality of the Iraq war. Under the direction of Karl Rove, Bush made Iraq his major political issue in 2002 and 2004. The American people bought it. John McCain’s support for Bush’s war is the central tenet of his campaign — and, again, Rove’s fingerprints are all over McCain’s campaign. For Bush and McCain, the politics of Iraq have never matched the reality.

Most important of all, Bush and McCain still can’t explain how Iraq is making us safer. Because it isn’t.

Page A1 of today’s Washington Post addresses the politics of Iraq:

The hearings before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees promise to be as much about presidential politics as about the past six months of military and diplomatic progress in Iraq. All last summer, Washington anxiously awaited the September appearances of Petraeus, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, and Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, anticipating that their testimony could determine the political viability of continued war.

Much further back, Page A13 of the Post, addresses the reality of Iraq:

Three U.S. service members were killed and dozens were wounded Sunday in rocket attacks on the fortified Green Zone and a military base in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. A fourth U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province, the military said. The rocket attacks came at 3:30 p.m., according to a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The attack on the Green Zone killed two of the soldiers and wounded 17, the official said. The other attack in the city, at a U.S. military base in Rustamiyah in eastern Baghdad, killed one soldier and wounded 14, the official said. “It’s a tough day for us,” the official said. “These are our colleagues, our friends.”

Unfortunately, Iraq is about politics. Only a political change in the presidency of the U.S. is going to stop this war.