The Iraq war is a top issue for many New Yorkers and other voters in the presidential primary on Tuesday.
Some voters, like members of the Syracuse Peace Council, want the troops home from Iraq immediately.
The American invasion, says Carol Baum, a staff employee at the Syracuse Peace CounciL, has done great damage in Iraq. “I think it’s like a bull in a China shop,” she said. “The more you let it run around in there, the more harm that’s done.”
Many others are unhappy about the war, even if they’re unsure what to do about it now. And the war has become a particularly potent issue for the Democratic candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Consider these statistics on how the war is shaping presidential politics:
So far, almost 4,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. Another 50,000 have been injured. But higher still are the estimates of Iraqi civilian casualties, which range from the 80,000 to more than 500,000.
For the Democratic front-runners, here are highlights of their stands on Iraq:
Clinton: In 2003, Clinton voted in the Senate to give President Bush the authority to use force to end the standoff with the late-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Since then, she’s sharply criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the war. But she has stopped short of advocating an immediate withdrawal of troops.
“I’ve said many times that if I knew then what I know now, I would never have given President Bush the authority” to enter Iraq, Clinton said at the Los Angeles Democratic debate on January 31.
She proposes a three-part plan. In the first phase, Clinton would start sending troops home within the first 60 days of her Administration. While withdrawing troops, Clinton wants to work with the Iraqi people and government to create a stable environment for everyone. The plan would put representatives with the United Nations in charge of this task. In the third part of her plan, she urges the creation of a group comprised of Iraqis, world leaders and particularly leaders from the states surrounding the boarders of Iraq to create a new diplomatic initiative that will create a safe environment not only for the people of the Middle East, but will ensure diplomatic measures resolve issues and not violence.
“We have got to tell the Iraqi government there is no — there is no more time,” Clinton said at the Kodak Theater debate. “They have got to make the tough decisions they have avoided making.”
Obama: He also promises to start withdrawing some troops as soon as he takes office as president. His plan calls for bringing home one to two brigades each month, taking about 18 months to get all American troops out of Iraq. During this withdraw period, U.S. representatives would work with the Iraqi leaders as well as others in the Middle East to reconcile and develop a regional diplomacy. The last part of Obama’s plan is to devote $2 billion to help Iraqi refugees by forming an international group that will help them get back on their feet by making sure they are safe to come back to Iraq.
“If we are going to send a signal to the Iraqis that we are serious, and prompt the Shia,the Sunni and the Kurds to actually come together and negotiate,” Obama said at the Kodak Theater debate. “They have to have clarity about how serious we are.”
(Laura Van Wert is a senior newspaper major.)
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