No longer able to mislead the American public into believing President Bush is a "compassionate conservative" or a "uniter, not a divider," the Republican Party focused almost entirely on 9/11 and national security at their national convention. Instead of cowering on the sidelines, Democrats should seize the opportunity to engage Bush in a real debate on national security.

What exactly do the Republicans want us to remember about the Bush administration's handling of the 9/11 attacks and its aftermath? Should we recall how the administration managed to take a situation of unprecedented international unity — with widespread support for America — and within months recklessly shatter it by launching a pre-emptive war under false pretenses and shoddy intelligence against a horribly weakened country that — in addition to not having stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction — had absolutely nothing to do with al-Qaeda?

Or should we instead focus our attention on how the administration's maniacal obsession with Saddam Hussein allowed al-Qaeda and the Taliban to regroup while the United States prepared for a needless war against a paper tiger in Iraq? Is it any surprise that Afghanistan has once again become a haven for radical Islamic terrorist organizations and ruthless druglords? While Osama bin Laden remains free, over 1,000 American men and women from mostly poor and middle class families have died on the streets of Iraq.

Perhaps we should take a look at how the inept postwar planning in Iraq by the administration has transformed a situation in which we were supposed to be warmly greeted as liberators into a quagmire of never-ending violence and rising anti-American sentiment throughout the entire Muslim world. Is it any wonder that the insurgency continues to grow and that the American military has long since worn out its welcome among ordinary Iraqis?

Maybe we should examine how Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and the boys fueled anti-American rage around the world by tossing the Geneva Convention out the window. With their audacious claims that previously accepted international laws no longer applied to the new war on terrorism, the administration severely undermined the same civil liberties and democratic principles that we were supposedly fighting for in Iraq.

Republicans have used the war in Iraq to demonstrate that Bush is both "tough on terror" and "strong on national security," but the reality couldn't be further from the truth. The decision to go to war in Iraq was a catastrophic strategic blunder that has rendered our country less secure by galvanizing the recruitment efforts of radical Islamic terrorist groups throughout the world and pushing far more serious national security problems off into the future.

That said, it still makes perfect sense why the Republicans are placing so much emphasis on national security and the war on terrorism. What else could they possibly run on? The economy? Nope, not with the administration presiding over a net loss of jobs since taking office — something that has not occurred since the Great Depression. Not with huge tax cuts for the extremely wealthy while poverty and homelessness rates worsen for the third straight year. Not when young American men and women are paying the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq while back home the Republican Party fights vigorously to make permanent the astronomical tax cuts for those from whom Bush never asked any sacrifice — the filthy rich.

What about health care? Not a chance. Health care costs are spiraling out of control while the number of uninsured Americans has climbed to an absurd 45 million. Fiscal responsibility? Laughable. The party that used to pride itself as the champion of fiscal prudence has lost its way. Bush and the Republican controlled Congress have turned the record budget surpluses of the Clinton years into record deficits in less than four years. The environment? No need to go there. You get the picture.

One thing should be clear to the American people: The poor and the middle class — whether they are dying in Iraq or losing their jobs or their health care back in the United States — have been consistently and systematically marginalized by the policies of an administration that unabashedly favors upper-class elites and the extremely wealthy. I can't think of anything more un-American.

Schmitt is a 2001 Marquette international affairs, political science and Spanish graduate and is currently a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin's La Follette School of Public Affairs.

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