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Obama, Clinton, McCain Address War

On Thursday, candidates continued to focus on the five-year mark of the Iraq war. Clinton addressed supporters in Indiana.

Tedious schoolmarmery:

Sen. Hillary Clinton: “This is the week of the fifth year of the Iraq war. And we are about to go into the sixth year and I believe passionately that we should begin to bring our troops home and I outlined the policy that I would follow as
president to do that. We have to do it carefully and responsibly, it is very difficult to withdraw troops, you can’t just wake up in the morning and say let’s start bringing them home. It has to be planned for.”

Obama meanwhile was in South Carolina, where he linked the nation’s economic woes to the Iraq war.

Trapped in the inexorable machine of battle rhetoric:

Sen. Barack Obama: “We also have to understand that the more than 10 billion dollars we’re spending each month in Iraq is money we could be investing here at home. Just think, just think what battles we can be fighting instead of fighting this misguided war. Instead of fighting this war we can be fighting the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11 and who are plotting against us in Afghanistan, in Pakistan.”

On the Republican side, Senator John McCain was in London Thursday on his way back from a Middle East tour. McCain said the Iraq war would be a key issue in the upcoming presidential election.

Plain McInSane:

Sen. John McCain: “We are now succeeding in Iraq and Americans, at least, I believe are in significant numbers agreeing that the present strategy of the Surge is succeeding. And they want us to succeed and that will be, frankly, a very big issue in this campaign.”