Did anyone pay attention to the candidates answers on Iraq?

[butterfly77]

I notice the differences this has always been a problem for me how George Bush says the generals on the ground will determine if or not we leave Iraq,and hillary seemed to be saying the same thing. Obama gave the answer I have always thought of when I look at a President, the president determines what he must do or not do according to what he sees for himself and by listening to what the military on the ground. Hillary seems to be playing the same game as George Bush of stay the course.

We also know that we don't know what the conditions on the ground will be by the time our president takes office. So in reality we can't determine what we will do and the president will determine also who will be assigned where...

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. What happened to obama's timetable?

[hedgehog]

7. Same as it's always been: get the hell out of Iraq as fast as it's

possible to do without endangering the rear guard.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Bullshit, there was a 16 month plan. What happened?

[hedgehog]

10. My understanding is that the common wisdom is that "get the hell

out of Iraq ASAP without having the rear guard massacred will take 16 months.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. So, it's the 16 month rule applies to this. Thanks for the clarification.

[hedgehog]

12. Hey, that's just me. Last I knew, I'm not running for anything.

Playing "gotcha" by pinning candidates down on tactics as opposed to strategy doesn't impress me. I'm no military expert, but I can understand that the exact method and timing of our withdrawal will depend on conditions at the time.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. He was asked about it in the debate.

CAPITALGAINSASSHAT: And, Senator Obama, your campaign manager, David Plouffe,
said, "When he is" -- this is talking about you -- "When he is elected
president, we will be out of Iraq in 16 months at the most. There should
be no confusion about that."
So you'd give the same rock-hard pledge, that no matter what the
military commanders said, you would give the order to bring them home?

OBAMA: Because the commander-in-chief sets the mission, Charlie.
That's not the role of the generals.
And one of the things that's been interesting about the president's
approach lately has been to say, "Well, I'm just taking cues from
General Petraeus."
Well, the president sets the mission. The general and our troops
carry out that mission. And, unfortunately, we have had a bad mission
set by our civilian leadership, which our military has performed
brilliantly. But it is time for us to set a strategy that is going to
make the American people safer.
Now, I will always listen to our commanders on the ground with
respect to tactics, once I've given them a new mission, that we are
going to proceed deliberately, in an orderly fashion, out of Iraq, and
we are going to have our combat troops out. We will not have permanent
bases there.
Once I have provided that mission, if they come to me and want to
adjust tactics, then I will certainly take their recommendations into
consideration. But, ultimately, the buck stops with me as the
commander-in-chief.
And what I have to look at is not just the situation in Iraq, but
the fact that we continue to see Al Qaida getting stronger in
Afghanistan and in Pakistan. We continue to see anti-American sentiment
fanned all across the Middle East.
We are overstretched in a way -- we do not have a strategic reserve
at this point. If there was another crisis that was taking place, we
would not have a brigade that we could send to deal with that crisis
that isn't already scheduled to be deployed in Iraq.
That is not sustainable; that's not smart. National security policy
is going to change when I'm president.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/04/democratic_philadelphia_debate.html

[PVnRT]

20. He mentioned the 16 month plan in Terre Haute last week

So I doubt that it's changed.

[SeaLyons]

2. Hillary was superior on Irag last night...

There was no "George Bush Stay the Course" coming from Hillary. Nice try.

She has far more command of the issues in Irag than Obama. At least Murtha thinks so.

[babylonsister]

3. Not really, but nice try. nt

[democrattotheend]

5. She sounded smoother, I'll agree

They both gave pretty much the same answer.

[dkf]

13. She was too rigid.

That is why you get the feeling that when reality hits her words aren't worth much anyway.

Worse, she has proved to us that she is a bad tactician and can't foresee the permutations that result in her downfall.

I have more faith in Obama's ability to get us out in the best way possible because he is much more likely to think out of the box whereas she has boxed herself in by saying she will not talk to regional powers unless they toe our line.

And yes, she can tell us what is going on, and that seems to make her competent, but she probably understood health care left and right and she still couldn't do anything with it.

Likewise, she participated in a national campaign before and knows all the local players, but she sure botched her campaign up but good.

I vote no confidence on Hillary as President.

[SeaLyons]

15. Her galliant effort

on healthcare in the 90's was held up with a republican congress.

She was delightful last night. Open, articulate, she showed humility, intelligence, grace. No criticism for Hillary on last night's performance. She did a fabulous job.

She get's my confidence hands down.

[dkf]

17. You are wrong...Dems had both houses when she presented her plan.

The One Hundred Third United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, comprised of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1993 to January 3, 1995, during the first two years of the first administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the Twenty-first Census of the United States in 1990. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/103rd_United_States_Congress

The health care debacle was one of the main reasons we lost control of congress. Sad but true.

[SeaLyons]

18. You are obviously better

informed than I am, but it doesn't change her effort and passion. She will make it happen this time, you can be sure of that.

[FlaGranny]

16. Superior on the part about

putting an "umbrella" over the entire middle east? Sounded like she was ready to go to war over there in every single local conflict. She sounded more warmongering than McCain and Bush.

[babylonsister]

4. No one can know what exactly they will do because

January is so far away. They can 'claim' they'll do whatever you want to hear, but that's a lie. I also prefer the logical route; when the time comes, gather all your smartest advisors, and the military, and make some concrete decisions on how to end this thing.

[not_too_L8]

8. THANK YOU!

[MyNameGoesHere]

6. Wow that is an out of touch

interpretation to what was said. Hillary clearly stated what is in the constitution that the Military is dictated by the civilians. That is not what * does. She also stated that she would withdraw regardless of what military says. Did you even watch? Or is it easier to act like a supporter of the candidate of unity, change and all that horse shit and just say any crap that comes to mind?

[wmbrew0206]

19. Both of them will end up with the same plan...

Both Obama and Clinton will end up going with whatever plan the JCS comes up with to get the troops out of Iraq as fast as possible with as few causalities as possible. Lets be honest, neither of these candidates have experience in military planning at the strategic level that will allow them to give detailed instruction of how they want the withdraw to occur. They both try and establish a timetable for a pull out, but it the end the amount of time it will take will be determined by the military.

After being there, I can tell you the logistics of removing all our troops and equipment in a responsible manner that doesn't put the our troops at unnecessary risk will take 14 to 16 months.