One thing I’ve noticed in scanning the candidates’ websites is the vast difference in detail from one to another. Some candidates have two paragraphs about the war in Iraq, others have three pages.
Whether this means anything I don’t yet know; but this installment covers the positions on the Iraq war of Dodd, Richardson, Biden, Kucinich, and Gravel.
As before, all quotes are from the official websites.
Senator Dodd voted for the authorization for the war. He now says he made a mistake and regrets his vote.
His website has this to say about his position on Iraq:
Diplomacy, Not More Troops in Iraq. Chris Dodd is strongly opposed to the Bush-Cheney troop surge strategy. As President, he will advance a surge of diplomacy in the region, not a surge of more troops.End the War in Iraq Decisively. Chris Dodd understands that ending the war in Iraq makes America safer. He strongly supports the Feingold-Reid proposal — the only responsible measure in Congress that sets a timetable to end the war in Iraq by March 31, — and he has urged all the candidates in the presidential race to join him. It is time to stand up to the President’s misguided Iraq policy.
Governor Richardson initially supported the war in Iraq, but has called that support a mistake and is now among the most outspoken opponents.
As might be expected from a candidate of his extensive diplomatic background, he has a detailed plan on how to end the conflict. The discussion on his website is extensive, centered on his seven-point plan:
- De-Authorize the War Now
- Troops Out in Six Months
- No Residual Forces Left Behind
- Promote Iraqi Reconciliation
- Work With All Neighbors and Allies
- Global Cooperation in Reconstruction
- Redeploy to Address Real Threats
Senator Biden departs from the Democratic pack in openly opposing a rapid withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
Senator Biden’s website discussion of Iraq is even more extensive than Governor Richardson’s. His basic strategy is to allow Iraq to devolve into three more or less homogenous regions based on ethnicity, with the Kurds, the Shiites, and the Sunnis each having their own territory. He cites Bosnia as an example of the possibility of success.
His plan for Iraq has five points:
- Establish One Iraq, with Three Regions
- Share Oil Revenues
- Convene International Conference, Enforce Regional Non-Aggression Pact
- Responsibly Drawdown US Troops
- Increase Reconstruction Assistance and Create a Jobs Program
He wants to make sure his plan is not called partition, but rather federalism.
The central government would be responsible for common interests, like border security and the distribution of oil revenues. The plan would bind the Sunnis — who have no oil — by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenues. It would convene an international conference to secure support for the power sharing arrangement and produce a regional nonaggression pact, overseen by a Contact Group of major powers. It would call on the U.S. military to withdraw most U.S. troops from Iraq by the summer of 2008, with a residual force to keep Iraqis and their neighbors honest. It would increase economic aid but tie it to the protection of minority rights and the creation of a jobs program and seek funding from the oil-rich Gulf Arab states.
Representative Kucinich voted against both the original authorization and the funding bill for the surge. He has perhaps the snappiest short slogan on the issue, Strength Through Peace.
On his website is a two-page plan for ending the war and bringing Americans home. He believes that
There is a compelling need for a new direction in Iraq, one that recognizes the plight of the people of Iraq, the false and illegal basis of the United States war against Iraq, the realities on the ground which make a military resolution of the conflict unrealistic and the urgent responsibility of the United States, which caused the chaos, to use the process of diplomacy and international law to achieve stability in Iraq, a process which will establish peace and stability in Iraq allow our troops to return home with dignity.
He also pushes the interconnectedness of issues including Iraq:
We need to understand the connection between peace and the environment. We know that life on our planet is threatened by the twin threats of global warring and global warming. They are linked, and we have to understand that as we cognize the world as being interconnected and interdependent, we know that resource wars are passe and that the focus on sustainability will create peace.
Former Senator Gravel opposed the war from the beginning. He has also publicly stated his opposition to a conflict with Iran, which he fears the Bush administration is moving toward.
His website states his position that US troops should be out of Iraq within 120 days, after which “aggressive diplomacy” would be undertaken to encourage neighboring countries and the international community to take a hand in reconstruction.
One of the leading opponents of the Vietnam War, Senator Gravel was one of the first current or former elected officials to publicly oppose the planned invasion of Iraq in 2002. He appeared on MSNBC prior to the invasion insisting that intelligence showed that there were indeed no weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq posed no threat to the United States and that invading Iraq was against America’s national interests and would result in a disaster of epic proportions for both the United States and the Iraqi people.
Biden's partition plan for Iraq is idiotic and offensive. He has no business telling the Iraqis how to run their country. It is none of our business to occupy Iraq, and it is none of our business to tell the Iraqis how to govern themselves.
Posted by: libhomo on August 26, 2007 9:28 AM