Reply #44: Alright, I want to call a truce on this...

[DjTj]

...because all we have as evidence is one interview that Edwards did on Hardball (not exactly the greatest truth-extracting medium) and I don't feel like digging around for all the other Edwards quotes on this subject that I can find.

This is just an intellectual exercise because we'll never find out the real answer. I will concede that out of the Hardball interview, you can draw the reasonable conclusion that Edwards could have sent troops into Iraq. Even if that is true, the hypothetical second-term Edwards would have learned his lesson by now and would definitely be backtracking on his preemptive war doctrine - heck, I've seen him backtracking in the past 3 weeks in the wake of David Kay and he's not even the President right now...

When I think back over everything that happenned leading up to Iraq though, it still seems ridiculous that anybody could have taken it all the way up to armed conflict. We kicked the inspectors out because we didn't believe them?! Who does that?! I tend to just get angry again when I look over the timelines ... I've tried to put it behind me and I wouldn't have gotten behind Edwards if I was still hung up on IWR and all that. I prefer to worry about the future, and I know the foreign policy future under Edwards is much better than that under Bush. I also don't think there will be a significant difference between Edwards and Kerry (and they would no doubt share many of the same advisors).

What makes me feel best about Edwards is this line from his stump speech (yeah, I'm a sucker for that speech):

"America's also had two different images around the world over the last 30 or 40 years. It used to be the image we were all proud of: America this great shining light, this beacon of freedom, democracy, and human rights that everyone looked up to. And now the image George Bush has given us: America acting on its own, unilaterally, disrespecting the rest of the world. It doesn't have to be that way. You and I can build a world and an image of America around the world where we are once again looked up to and respected and the truth is this: Every child, every family in America will be safer and more secure if they live in a world where America is once again looked up to and respected. That's the world that you and I are going to create together."

Those are not the words of a man that will repeat the mistakes of Iraq.