WASHINGTON – Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she would not have attacked Iraq if she were president in 2002 and would end the war if elected, as she tried to blunt rivals like John Edwards who are stoking anti-war passions in the Democratic Party.
“It’s time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else’s civil war,” he said. “That’s why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace. “
“We need to reject this McCain doctrine of surging troops and escalating the war in Iraq,” he said. “We need to make clear we’re going to leave and we need to start leaving Iraq.” The pre-New Year’s announcement highlighted the very early start to the 2008 campaign. Edwards became the third Democrat to announce his candidacy, joining Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio).
“The average voter out there understands that the next president is going to have to be prepared to immediately step in without hesitation and end our involvement in Iraq,” Biden said. “It’s very difficult to figure out how to move on to broader foreign policy concerns without fixing Iraq first.”
_New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: Says U.S. troops should be redeployed by the end of the year to Afghanistan and other regions in the Persian Gulf.
It’s a shame the purest and most consistent opponent of the war
on the Dem side and far more experienced than Obama, (pushed as the “multiculturalism for its own sake” candidate,) is being shunted aside by the ever so obedient to ruling class desires MSM. That of course is Dennis Kucinich, who voted against the war and has proposals extant to immediately defund it.