Clinton, Edwards, and Obama on Ending the Iraq War

If you are interested in reading how the top three candidates for the Democratic nomination plan to end the Iraq War, here are three links:

Hillary Clinton plan: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/iraq/

John Edwards plan: http://johnedwards.com/issues/iraq/

Barack Obama's plan: http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/iraq/

Although all three plans call for ending the war, there are distinct differences between the three candidates. This is what Clinton says about taking troops out of Iraq:

The most important part of Hillary's plan is the first: to end our military engagement in Iraq's civil war and immediately start bringing our troops home. As president, one of Hillary's first official actions would be to convene the Joint Chiefs of Staff, her Secretary of Defense, and her National Security Council. She would direct them to draw up a clear, viable plan to bring our troops home starting with the first 60 days of her Administration. She would also direct the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to prepare a comprehensive plan to provide the highest quality health care and benefits to every service member -- including every member of the National Guard and Reserves -- and their families.

Here is what Edwards says:

We must show the Iraqis that we are serious about leaving by actually starting to leave, with an immediate withdrawal of 40,000-50,000 troops and a complete withdrawal within nine to ten months. We should leave behind in Iraq only a brigade of 3,500 to 5,000 troops to protect the embassy and possibly a few hundred troops to guard humanitarian workers.

Here is what Barack Obama says:

Obama has a plan to immediately begin withdrawing our troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year.

Clinton and Obama seem to allow themselves more flexibility in removing troops than Edwards does. Clinton doesn't mention how many troops should be withdrawn or what kind of troops should be withdrawn. She states that she will develop a plan within 60 days of taking office, but doesn't say how long it would take to redeploy out of Iraq. Further she doesn't state how many troops she envisions in Iraq after such redeployment. Arguably her plan would result in no American troops left in Iraq, but she doesn't commit to that result.

Obama says that he will withdraw troops that are engaged in combat and that such troops would be out within a year of the implementation of the plan, but doesn't say how many troops will remain in Iraq after the "combat troops" are withdrawn. Again, arguably, the number of troops would be relatively small, since they wouldn't be "combat troops" but it could also be that under his plan there would be thousands of troops left in bases in Iraq, but they wouldn't be engaged in combat.

Edwards, however, sets forth a timetable of 9-10 months and at the end of the process to withdraw almost all the troops from Iraq and at the end of the process envisions a brigade left in Iraq plus a few hundred additional troops to guard aid workers.

To read more about the three plans, click on the links above.