Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama, was recently interviewed by ABC News.  She presented Iraq as a domestic issue:

“All of our emotional and financial resources… as a country have been totally put into the war. We haven’t talked about the domestic issue in about 10 years,” she said. “There are no serious conversations about health care or education, or child care, or minimum wage. I mean, these are the basic issues that eat away at the family structure. So you can’t just tell, you know, a family of four to suck it up and make it work.”

“I think that we as a country have been a little lax in… our concern for these issues,” she said. “We’ve been nullified by the fear mongers, you know? It’s almost as if people have voted against their best personal issue interests because they’ve been so afraid of what could happen. You know, the terrorists are gonna get us.”

“[Terrorism is] an incredibly important concern, but where is the balance, you know… is really the question — where is the balance?” she continued. “You have to be a respected player. You have to do a little bit of both. So that nonideological, a nonfear-based approach is really what we need now as a country.”

I agree with Ms. Obama’s assessment.  Iraq is a domestic issue.  Terrorism is always a domestic issue.  This is true because dollars and hours are fungible.