So we should stay in Iraq to fight the Kaiser?

That being said, there is a clear difference between offering up a foreign policy outlook to democratic approval (or disapproval) and engaging in theatrical stunts that increase ones political position at the expense of our national policy. I have absolutely no issue with Clinton, or any democratic nominee, eplaining their foreign policy and promising remove our troops from Iraq if they are elected. I might disagree with what they present, and choose not to vote for them, but I won’t have any issue with them doing it. Putting up meaningless legislation as a stunt to incease their position with ‘the base’ is a different matter all toghether.

I suspect though that you realized that before you asked the question.

That’s logic? Damn, we could have avoided fighting in two world wars, had we been that enlightened.

How is staying in Iraq going to make me safe from Al Qaeda members elsewhere who want to blow stuff up where I live?

I also think that this manuever, and many others that have impacts on foreign policy, that the Democrats have engaged in have nothing to do with foreign policy, but are purely focused on domestic political positioning.

Didn’t you say in the past that in a democracy things should be politicized?

Who do you think we’re fighting in Iraq?

In relation to you other points, I do think it possible to craft a forigen policy postion that opposses the Iraq war and fights Al-Qaida. I don’t think the democrats have done it yet though. I also think that this manuever, and many others that have impacts on foreign policy, that the Democrats have engaged in have nothing to do with foreign policy, but are purely focused on domestic political positioning. This political positioning I think will increase the perception that Democrats are not serious when it comes to foreign policy, and I think that will be a long term detriment to the party.

But I don’t know that I necessarily buy your characterization of the Democratic position on terror issues. Just because many of us think that the Iraq War was a tragic, mistaken policy and hurt the U.S. in its global opposition to the likes of Al Qaeda doesn’t mean that we don’t think the latter is a critical threat — rather, we disagree about the best means by which to deal with that threat.

By the way, I’m curious as to your feelings about Obama’s approach to these issues, outlined in this speech (I don’t normally want to foist reading material this long on someone, by the way).