More on the Edwards lunch, this time on foreign policy

Post by Bloggerdad

Most of my original post was about John Edwards' position on domestic matters, or at least non-military matters. But he had quite a lot to say about foreign policy and the military. He is not timid about these matters. He favors a quick withdrawal from Iraq. He says that there is no US military solution to the problem, and Iraq's neighbors have a powerful interest in stabilizing that country but not while we are there. But he does not propose to withdraw from the area. He favors a robust US military presence in Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. He says a nuclear Iran is unacceptable and that it is presently being governed by a madman. But he says we need to be smart about the situation. He is cognizant of the fissures in Iranian society and considers them an opportunity that we should exploit, but not by military force.

He favors deploying troops withdrawn from Iraq to Afghanistan to finish what was left undone when we went on the misadventure in Iraq.

He would seek cooperation and participation of all interested parties in seeking stability in the middle east.

My sense is that he would not shrink from use of military force when he thought it was necessary, but it would be as a result of thought, not ideology.

I very much hope I have accurately stated his positions on these points. My remarks are based on my memory and some inferences I drew. I sense steel in this man.

There is an interesting comment in the New York Times* today under the heading "The 2008 Campaign".

The section titled "The Polls' has bar graphs comparing favorable, unfavorable and haven't heard enough for Hillary, Obama and Edwards. The comment says that Democratic voters have a more favorable opinion of Hillary than of Edwards and that is what the poll shows as far as it goes, but it is very misleading. The bar graph tells a more complete story. Those Democratic voters also have a more unfavorable opinion of Hillary than Edwards. Edwards unfavorables are minuscule. Hillary's are not. But even more interesting is the fact that the difference between Hillary's favorables and Edwards is taken up in the bar graph by the "have not heard enough" responses. Rather surprising that a former Vice Presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket appears not to be as well known in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania as Hillary.

*[Trailhead note: Bloggerdad advises this is from the dead tree edition. I haven't the time this morning to see if it's online or not, so if anyone has a link to the online version, please share it!]

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