Our guest blogger is Sean Duggan, a Research Associate with the National Security at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Early last week, the Department of Defense announced 2009 troop deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As part of this scheduled rotation, seven Army brigade combat teams (BCT) and two Army headquarter divisions consisting of nearly 22,000 servicemen and women will deploy to Iraq between winter and summer of next year.

In an election year fixated on the promise of change, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen are seeing none of it. Of the seven brigade combat teams recently notified, this deployment will be the second to either Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 for four of the brigades, the third deployment for one brigade and the fourth for another.

While violence in Iraq may be down, the operation tempo for our soldiers and their families remains high. Today, there are 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, over 20,000 more than were in the country when the surge began in January of 2007. Because the Bush administration has refused to face up to the manpower implications of its open-ended commitment of forces—particularly in Iraq—by reinstituting the draft, it has been forced to deploy and redeploy active brigades without sufficient dwell time.

Of the Army’s 44 combat brigades, all but the First Brigade of the Second Infantry Division, which is permanently based in South Korea, have served at least one tour. Of the remaining 43:

- 9 brigades have had one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan
- 13 brigades have had two tours in Iraq or Afghanistan
- 15 brigades have had three tours in Iraq or Afghanistan
- 5 brigades have had four tours in Iraq or Afghanistan

Unfortunately, few Americans are paying attention. Today, the war in Iraq ranks a distant third on issues American voters feel are most important to them, far behind gas prices and U.S. energy policy and well behind the economy and jobs. This inattention extends to the media as well. As of last week, ABC did not have a single report on World News Tonight from its Baghdad correspondent in 40 days and CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq.

Never before have the American people asked so much from so few of our soldiers. If the president and his successor are committed to fighting the war in Iraq over the long term, he should have the courage of his convictions and call for reinstating the draft. If not, the only responsible course is to set a timetable to bring the troops home.

The Bush administration is currently in discussions to send $6 billion in arms to Taiwan. Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) sent a letter to President Bush, urging him to “add more submarines and new fighter jets to the package” as Taiwan had requested:

“The package will not include submarines or new F-16 aircraft. I urge the administration to reconsider this decision, in light of its previous commitment to provide submarines and America’s previous sales of F-16s,” McCain said. “These sales — which could translate into tens of thousands of jobs here at home — would help retain America’s edge in the production of advanced weaponry and represent a positive sign in these difficult economic times.”

McCain’s desire to increase arms sales to Taiwan, however, raises questions about yet another conflict of interest involving his chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann, who previously lobbied for the Taiwanese government. The Washington Post reports:

In 2005, Scheunemann signed the contract between his firm, Orion Strategies LLC, and Taiwan’s Washington office. On June 4 of this year, his partner, Mike Mitchell, signed a renewal of the contract, which calls for quarterly payments of 50,000.

Scheunemann represented Taiwan from 2003 to March at Orion. The LA Times reported that McCain has pushed for pro-Taiwan legislation, as Orion’s lobbying forms cite “bills benefiting Orion’s other foreign clients: Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Taiwan.”

Scheunemann introduced McCain to a representative of Taiwan as it lobbied for free trade. In all, Scheunemann’s firm has lobbied McCain or his aides on at least 47 occasions since 2001 on behalf of the governments of Taiwan, Macedonia, Romania and Latvia.

Matt Duss notes that Scheunemann has lobbied for Lockheed-Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, which manufactures the F-16s that McCain is demanding the U.S. give to Taiwan. Scheunemann had also been employed as a lobbyist for Georgia at the same time he was providing foreign policy advice to McCain, lobbying McCain himself nearly 50 times between 2004 and 2007.

Reporting that John McCain is “urging the administration to add submarines and F-16s aircraft to a $6 billion package of military equipment for Taiwan,” the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler also mentions that top McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann was a lobbyist for Taiwan:

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether Randy Scheunemann, his foreign policy coordinator, had a role in drafting the statement or if he had recused himself. In an e-mail, spokesman Brian Rogers said, “Senator McCain has a long and consistent record of support for Taiwan, including supporting sales of defensive arms to maintain deterrence and stability in the region.”

In 2005, Scheunemann signed the contract between his firm, Orion Strategies LLC, and Taiwan’s Washington office. On June 4 of this year, his partner, Mike Mitchell, signed a renewal of the contract, which calls for quarterly payments of $50,000.

The article doesn’t mention, however, that Scheunemann has also lobbied for Lockheed-Martin, the world’s largest defense contractor, which manufactures the F-16s that Scheunemann’s current boss is demanding we give to Taiwan.

In addition to the obvious conflict of interest issues — two of Scheunemann’s lobbying clients stand to benefit in a major way from this arms deal — as with Scheunemann’s lobbying for the government of Georgia, this raises serious questions of how a McCain administration would mediate between China and Taiwan, given the position of authority that Scheunemann would likely occupy in that administration.

UPDATE: Here’s one of Scheunemann’s Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings showing that he lobbied McCain on Taiwan’s behalf during the week of June 26, 2005. Scheunemann met with McCain and Deputy Taiwanese Foreign Minister Michael Kau “to discuss US-Taiwan defense cooperation.” Scheunemann also lobbied McCain aides Richard Fontaine and Chris Paal the same week, on the same topic.