In an interview with Brett Baier of Fox yesterday, Mitt Romney was asked about neglecting to mention U.S. troops, who are still fighting a war in Afghanistan.  Romney appeared to be annoyed by the question and shot back by answering that he spoke about the things that are "important":

BAIER: To hear several speakers in Charlotte … they were essentially saying that you don’t care about the U.S. military because you didn’t mention U.S. troops and the war in Afghanistan in your nomination acceptance speech. … Do you regret opening up this line of attack, now a recurring attack, by leaving out that issue in the speech.

ROMNEY: I only regret you’re repeating it day in and day out. When you give a speech you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important and I described in my speech, my commitment to a strong military unlike the president’s decision to cut our military. And I didn’t use the word troops, I used the word military. I think they refer to the same thing.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/09/07/813831/romney-rnc-speech-troops-important/

To suggest that the troops who are away fighting a war - the very troops he desires to lead as Commander-in-Chief - aren't important enough to mention during his presidential nomination speech, is simply appalling.  In addition, suggesting that the troops and the military are the same thing is equally appalling and ridiculous.  It's akin to neglecting to thank the doctors and nurses that saved your life and then defending yourself by saying that you'd mentioned how well-built the hospital building is, and that they refer to the "same thing".

Now, imagine that, instead of Mitt Romney, it was President Obama that had done this.  If President Obama had neglected to mention the troops, there would have been a huge outcry.  If he had then compounded it further by essentially shrugging his shoulders and saying that he had spoken about what was important, the outcry would have turned into a war cry.

Instead, there has been mainly silence from the right.  I wish I could believe it was a stunned silence, but I'm afraid that it's a silence of complicity.