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THE ISSUE: IRAQ

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Hillary Clinton Photo by AP

Hillary Clinton
  • • Has opposed a troop increase in Iraq
  • • Has pledged to begin withdrawing troops within 60 days of being elected, and says she will have "nearly all" of the troops home by her first year in office.
  • • Has opposed using congressional spending power to end the war
  • • Voted for the war in 2002 and has subsequently refused to apologize for it
  • More from Clinton's website
  • Clinton's bio, campaign coverage
Mike Gravel Photo by AP

Mike Gravel
  • • Says he was one of the first elected officials to publicly oppose the planned invasion of Iraq in 2002
  • • Appeared on MSNBC prior to the invasion insisting that intelligence showed that there were no weapons of mass destruction
  • • Has called for an immediate and orderly withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq combined with aggressive diplomacy to end sectarian violence
  • More from Gravel's website
  • Gravel's bio, campaign coverage
Obama talks about Iraq

Barack Obama
  • Opposed the Iraq war before he was elected to the Senate
  • Voted against one major military spending bill in May 2007; otherwise voted in favor of money to support the war.
  • Says he would withdraw US troops within 16 months of taking office in January 2009 and would leave no permanent bases. Initially had said a timetable for completing withdrawal would be irresponsible without knowing what facts he'd face in office.
  • Says his early opposition to the war shows he is best placed to make a "clean break" from the Republican approach.
  • Opposed the troop increase, but said the troop surge has worked in ways nobody could have imagined
  • Supports capping troop levels at 130,000.