Edwards Wins MoveOn.org Virtual Town Hall Meeting On Iraq

Last night MoveOn.org held their first virtual town hall meeting. They are planning a total of three of these virtual town hall meetings. This one focused on the war in Iraq. Two more will be held this summer, one on health care, and the other on global warming. 7 Democratic candidates showed up for this one. MoveOn members voted on which candidates would participate, and they invited 12, from both the Democratic party and the Republican party. Members submitted, and then voted on the questions. Afterwards they voted on which candidate they thought was the most qualified to lead the country out of this war. John Edwards was the favorite with 25% of the vote, followed by Bill Richardson with 21%. Barack Obama was third with 19%, and Hillary Clinton was fourth with 11%.
John Edwards was the first and his question was, “what is the best and fastest way to get out of Iraq?” He said he was sorry about voting for the war in the first place, and then said, “Simply put, Congress should use its funding authority to force President Bush to end the war, and start immediately bringing American troops home from Iraq.” Edwards also said he would “end war profiteering in Iraq.”
If you would like to hear John Edwards click here.
the next candidate was Joe Biden. He was asked how he would stop the war, and he had a multi step answer, with the last step being call on the United Nations. He said he was, “against building permanent US Military bases in Iraq.” He was not only concerned about getting the troops out of Iraq, but what to do with Iraq when we leave.
If you would like to hear Joe Biden click here.
Dennis Kucinich was the next candidate. Kucinich says the war is being fueled by our troops being there, so if we take the troops out the war should simmer down. He suggested bringing in the United Nations, with at least 50% of them from Muslim countries. he also wants reparations for the people in Iraq for all the damage done so far. He suggested a total break from our current foreign policies developed by the Bush administration saying, “We’ve created this mess in Iraq by an illegal invasion, by an illegal, an illegal occupation, and we need to change our direction and that means not simply work to repair Iraq, but we need to end, once and for all, policies of unilateralism, preemption, first strike. We need to have this become the moment where we’ve learned our lesson, and we reject war as an instrument of policy.” And to make up with the rest of the world for our bad behavior Kucinich suggests we “get rid of all nuclear weapons. We’ll fully participate in the biological weapons convention, the chemical weapons convention, the small arms treaty, the land mines treaty. We will join the international criminal court, and we’ll sign the, as I mentioned, we’ll sign the Kyoto climate change treaty, and in doing that, we’ll help affirm international law and international cooperation.”
If you would like to hear Kucinich click here.
Bill Richardson was the next to answer questions. Bill Richardson wants to pull out the troops and get everyone in a big room to talk things out. “This will be tough. This will be difficult but the full force of withdrawal, the full force of American diplomacy, and the full force of bringing other entities Europe, Muslim countries, and the region for a solution. We’ll give Iraq a chance,” Richardson said. Not only would he defund the war, he said he, “would pass a Congressional resolution, de-authorizing the war based on the War Powers Act.”
If you would like to hear Bill Richardson click here.
Up next was Hillary Clinton. She mentions her bill the “Iraq Troop Protection and Reduction Act.” It would begin redeployment of the troops in 90 days, the ones still there must have proper equipment, and thirdly benchmarks for Iraq, and finally convene an international forum. She would also like to keep the pressure on Bush to end this war.
If you would like to hear Hillary Clinton click here.
Next was Chris Dodd. Dodd said, “We need to move away from this idea that there’s a military solution.” He wanted to start redeploying troops right now. He called for “a surge in politics and diplomacy.” He said the Iraqi oil is theirs to keep, and we should develop bio fuels instead.
If you would like to hear more from Dodd click here.
The final speaker was Barack Obama. He said that he opposed the war from the beginning, and “there’s no military solution to this war.” He calls for opening dialogue with Syria and Iran. “Power without diplomacy is a prescription for disaster,” Obama said.
If you would like to here more of Obama click here.
Alan Cosgrove