Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy Reminds Us That All Politics is Local

They say that all of politics is local. No matter how big of an issue, it somehow affects those who live in communities like ours. The final debate scheduled for Monday night at 9 p.m. between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will focus on foreign policy.

The biggest foreign policy issue for the last three presidential terms has to be terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As the candidates debate foreign policy, Patch looks back at some of the stories we covered on the local effects on the community of America's ongoing wars.

PHOTOS: Remembering Fallen Heroes in Setauket. The annual Memorial Day parade in Three Village, organized by the Setauket VFW Post 3054, has been a local tradition since the 1930s.

Changed by 9/11. Patch brought you the stories of local people whose lives were changed forever by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center: Abbie Kearse, Stephen Healy, Steven Hintze, Eliel Pimentel, and Clarissa Bullitt.

Protestors March Through Setauket to Mark Anniversary of Iraq Invasion Dozens of black-clad anti-war protesters wearing white face masks marched single file in March of 2011 from the Three Village Shopping Center to the site of a vigil on the corner of Route 25A and Bennetts Road in Setauket. The march was in observance of the eight years that have passed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and in remembrance of those soldiers and civilians who have lost their lives overseas. The event was coordinated by the North Country Peace Group, a grassroots organization comprised of Three Villagers who advocate diplomacy as a means of ending war.

Ward Melville High School Remembers 9/11. The parade of flags along Old Town Road has become a new tradition, one that reminds students of the events of 9/11 – especially those who were too young to remember the events of that day unfolding.

The message on either side of the street boils down to one phrase: support the troops. But the practical approach to this idea is where the difference in opinion lies for the North Country Patriots and the North Country Peace Group, the two groups which have been demonstrating for years at the corner of Route 25A, North Country Road and Bennetts Road.

9/11 Documentary Premieres at Stony Brook Film Festival. The film’s executive producer, Dr. Benjamin Luft, is head of the Stony Brook University Medical Center’s World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program (WTCMMTP). The film, 9/11: An American Requiem, is about first responders to the World Trade Center attacks. Most of the responders interviewed in the film are patients of the clinic, which sees about 6,000 patients from Long Island still physically and emotionally affected by their involvement in the events of that day and the rescue efforts, Luft said.