Pandering For Votes

Pandering for votes is a politician's staple, but this shows just how foolish John Edwards truly is. He thinks that Americans will go for his latest proposal to bring home virtually all the US troops in Iraq just before the 2008 election.

The number of troops needed or necessary in Iraq to fight al Qaeda and continue to support the Iraqi government - the key missions in Iraq at present - is determined by the military commanders in Iraq and General Petraeus has hit upon a winning strategy in defeating al Qaeda and squashing the insurgency with using additional troops and concentrating efforts to reduce the area in which the insurgents and al Qaeda operate. With more Iraqi forces stepping up, US troops can and are being reduced, but to put a purely political spin on how and when to bring those troops home, it shows critical misjudgment on foreign policy, national security, and how and when to use US force to bolster and support our allies and thwart our enemies in the Middle East.

In one of his most detailed discussions to date about how he would handle Iraq as president, Mr. Edwards staked out a position that would lead to a more rapid and complete troop withdrawal than his principal rivals, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who have indicated they are open to keeping American trainers and counterterrorism units in Iraq.

Elizabeth Edwards, his wife and political partner, who listened in on the interview from a seat across the aisle, intervened at the end of the session to underscore that Mr. Edwards did not intend to stop all training and was prepared to train Iraqi forces outside of the country. Mr. Edwards continued the theme while acknowledging that the benefits of such training would be limited.

Mr. Edwards’s plan, like that of many of his Democratic opponents, is at odds with the strategy developed by American military commanders, who have said the situation is still too fragile to set a timetable for such extensive troop withdrawals and a curtailment of the training effort in Iraq.

Mr. Edwards’s plan calls for immediately withdrawing 40,000 to 50,000 troops. Nearly all of the remaining American troops would be removed within 9 or 10 months. The only force that would remain would be a 3,500-to-5,000-strong contingent that would protect the American Embassy and possibly humanitarian workers.

Even his wife, Elizabeth, realized that John was going too far and tried to spin the situation for him. I've said it before, and it's worth repeating, but Elizabeth has shown herself to be the more credible of the two Edwards' running.