It seems that each Democratic candidate is trying to put a different spin on their position on Iraq.  The Register report from the Scott County Red, White and Blue Dinner had some quick coverage of Biden, Edwards, and Vilsack:

– Vilsack called on Congress to stop the flow of war money.

– Edwards suggested a troop limit of 100,000.

– Biden said Iraq’s government should be federalized to separate the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis and let peace take root. He said a withdrawal of U.S. troops now would result in chaos, but “we should be drawing down troops, not escalating.”

Edwards’ position isn’t really all that different from any of the people who oppose the escalation (except for being completely unbound from political reality) but the way it is stated makes me kind of uncomfortable overall with this focus on stopping the “surge” – what about the 140k odd troops out there right now?  If you don’t think adding 20k-30k more troops is going to help (and I don’t, either) why isn’t there more focus on not leaving the rest of our guys out there with their dicks hanging out?  (Man, imagine if Obama had said that.)

I realize that incremental approaches are sometimes all you can do.  I realize that the President is ultimately the commander in chief, and no matter how incompetent he has proven himself, he still gets to give the orders.  But it seems to me that there is just too much step-by-step bullshit going on and it is starting to piss me off.