Edwards seeks distinction with Clinton on Iraq

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

While Hillary Clinton attempts to shade any differences between her Iraq policy and that of her Democratic opponents -- she kicked off last week's debate at Dartmouth College by praising two of their approaches to the war -- one of them is trying to portray her stance as pro-war.

"If you're not ending combat operations, you're not ending the war," former Senator John Edwards plans to say in a forum Wednesday in Portsmouth, N.H., where he will also present new proposals to rein in military contractors drafted in response to the Blackwater scandal.

Edwards has promised to end all combat missions in Iraq and remove all troops who would be involved in them, saying that a force of non-combat personnel would be necessary to protect the US Embassy in Baghdad. Clinton has refused to make such a pledge, citing ongoing an anti-terrorist campaign, while New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has said he will remove all troops from the country.

Edwards, who like Clinton voted to authorize the war in 2002 in the Senate but has been far more profligate in his apologies for it, is trying to use the distinction over troops and their mission to move to Clinton's left on a substantive matter of war policy.

"The debate I expect to have next fall with Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, or whoever's the Republican nominee is whether or not to end the war," Edwards will say, according to his prepared remarks. "But the debate Senator Clinton would be in is how big a war you're going to have."