On Sept. 12, The Great Presidential Mashup-The Democrats on Iraq.

The Great Presidential Mashup
The Democrats on Iraq.


On Sept. 12, Slate, Yahoo!, and the Huffington Post will host the first-ever online-only presidential candidate mashup. Armed with your questions, Charlie Rose will ask the top Democratic presidential candidates about their views on health care, Iraq, education, and other issues. Their video responses will be coded and put at your disposal—empowering you to create your own custom candidate forum. Want to hear every candidate's position on the war? Hillary's positions on every issue? Obama's view on health care? Our mashup will allow you to do all of the above.

But before we get there, there's homework to do. What have the candidates said on the issues so far? Are they changing their stories? Our cheat sheet on the previous debates will help you be the judge. Today, we offer background information on Iraq, one of the three issues selected by readers for the Slate/Yahoo!/Huffington Post candidate mashup. Read the candidates' stances below.


*************************

Sen. Joe Biden

South Carolina Debate, April 26, 2007

Look, is not a game show. You know, this is not a football game. This is not win or lose. The fact of the matter is that the president has a fundamentally flawed policy. It's based upon the notion of being able to set a strong, central government in Baghdad that will be democratic. And the real question is: Are we going to be able to leave Iraq, get our troops out, and leave behind something other than chaos?

There's only one way. You've got to change the fundamental premise of this engagement, and that is: You've got to decentralize Iraq, you've got to give the regions control over their own destiny, get them control over their police forces, their own identity, and have a limited central government and share their oil wealth.

New Hampshire Debate, June 3, 2007

We've not been told the truth about this war from the beginning by this president. And the fact is, we got to tell the truth now. The truth now is, there are 160,000 forces in Iraq. They're in harm's way. Seventy percent of all the injuries are caused by land—those IEDs. We know that if we put in these mine-resistant vehicles, the V-shaped-hull vehicles, put them in now, we could save two-thirds of the lives and two-thirds of the injuries. My colleagues joined me when I proposed fast-forwarding the funding for that so we could get 2,500 of them into the field by August. If we had voted no and stopped this, it would have delayed that. Lives are at stake.

I cannot—as long as there is a single troop in Iraq that I know if I take action by funding them, I increase the prospect they will live or not be injured—I cannot and will not vote no to fund them.

CNN/YouTube Debate, July 23, 2007

You know we can't just pull out now. Let's get something straight. It's time to start to tell the truth. The truth of the matter is: If we started today, it would take one year, one year to get 160,000 troops physically out of Iraq, logistically. That's No. 1. No. 2, you cannot pull out of Iraq without the follow-on that's been projected here, unless you have a political solution. I'm the only one that's offered a political solution. And it literally means separate the parties; give them jurisdiction in their own areas; have a decentralized government, a federal system. No central government will work. And, thirdly, the fact of the matter is, the very thing everybody's quoting is the very legislation I wrote in January. It said: Begin to draw down combat troops now; get the majority of the combat troops out by March of '08. There's not one person in here that can say we're going to eliminate all troops

No. 1, there is not a single military man in this audience who will tell this senator he can get those troops out in six months if the order goes today. Let's start telling the truth. No. 1, you take all the troops out. You better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die, No. 1. So we can't leave them there. And it's going to take a minimum 5,000 troops to 10,000 just to protect our civilians. So, while you're taking them out, Governor, take everybody out. That may be necessary. No. 3, the idea that we all voted—except for me—for that appropriation. That man's son is dead. For all I know, it was an IED. Seventy percent of all the deaths occurred have been those roadside bombs. We have money in that bill to begin to build and send immediately mine-resistant vehicles that increase by 80 percent the likelihood none of your cadets will die, General. And they all voted against it. How in good conscience can you vote not to send those vehicles over there as long as there's one single, solitary troop there?

AFL-CIO Debate, Aug. 7, 2007

Bush has not told the truth for seven years; it's time we tell the truth. The truth is, if Iraq—if al-Qaida establishes a base in Iraq, all these people who talk about going into Pakistan are going to have to send your kids back to Iraq.

The fact of the matter is, it matters how we get out of Iraq. And I'm the only one on this stage that has a detailed political plan how to get out. Separate the parties. Let them be in regions. Give them control over their own security. Set up a limited central government. Begin to draw down our troops. But let's start talking the truth to the American people.

****************************

Sen. Hillary Clinton

South Carolina Debate, April 26, 2007

The Congress has voted, as of today, to end this war. I'm very proud of the Congress under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid for putting together a piece of legislation which says we will fund our troops and protect them, we will limit the number of days that they can be deployed, and we will start to bring them home.

This is not America's war to win or lose. We have given the Iraqi people the chance to have freedom, to have their own country. It is up to them to decide whether or not they're going to take that chance.

I've said many times that, if I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.

lots more...

http://www.slate.com/id/2173483/fr/flyout