[Peace-discuss] Edwards First Major Candidate Calling for All Troops Out, Breaks with Establishment Consensus on Iraq

[Joe Miller]

The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/edwards-first-major-candi_b_79202.html

Tom Hayden

Edwards First Major Candidate Calling for All Troops Out, Breaks with 
Establishment Consensus on Iraq

Posted January 2, 2008 | 10:37 AM (EST)

One day before the Iowa caucuses, John Edwards has become the first 
major presidential candidate to favor withdrawing all American troops, 
including advisers, from Iraq, doing so in response to queries from a 
leading military correspondent, the New York Times' Michael Gordon.

The positions taken by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, while favoring 
de-escalation, would leave tens of thousands of American advisers, 
special forces and substantial back-up troops in Iraq for five years, at 
least until 2013. The mainstream media also has promoted the view that 
there is "no way out" of Iraq, according to a comprehensive survey by 
Peter Hart in Extra! [Nov.-Dec. 2007]. If these views prevail, the US 
government will be funding, arming, training and defending a repressive 
sectarian state in Baghdad for years. Already, for example, there are 
over 50,000 Iraqi prisoners held in detention by the US and Baghdad 
authorities, the vast majority of them on no charges. Evidence of 
torture and ethnic cleansing by the Baghdad regime has been accumulated 
in numerous official reports as well.

In the frontpage Times' interview, the traditionally-hawkish Gordon 
questioned Edwards' whether his proposal would "pull the rug out" from 
the Iraqi security forces, and pointed out several times that Edwards' 
position is at odds with "senior American military commanders." However, 
Gordon failed to note that one such military leader, Gen. James Jones, 
while supporting more training of the Iraqi security forces, has 
reported that those forces are sectarian and dysfunctional and even 
called for "scrapping" the national police force now conducting 
counterinsurgency under Gen. Davis Petraeus' command.

Edwards' thinking seems to flow from his populist orientation: "I 
honestly believe this in my soul, we are propping up their bad 
behavior", he told Gordon, "I mean really, how many American lives and 
how much American taxpayer money are we going to continue to expend 
waiting for these [Iraqi] political leaders to do something?"

The political impact of Edwards' statement is unpredictable. It may sway 
some Bill Richardson or Dennis Kucinich voters to caucus instead for 
Edwards Thursday night. It may cause a few defections from Clinton or 
Obama. It may play out in New Hampshire and later primaries, if Edwards 
is deemed "viable" by the media after Iowa. And to the extent that 
Edwards' campaign continues to be a force in the national election, his 
Iraq position could become a rallying point in the Democratic platform 
debate.

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