Thinking Through Iraq with John Edwards

Boker tov, Boulder! posted a May 30, 2007 John Edwards video from YouTube, which contains this colloquy (at 1:20-1:53):

YouTube:  . . . One of your most popular use of videos is the “We the People” campaign, when you get together all these videos from voters across the country, essentially saying to President Bush “we want to pull out of Iraq” and if it’s by your plan, within one year — completely out.

Edwards:  That’s right.

YouTube:  If we do that, what happens next in Iraq?  Does it descend there further into chaos, or do things get better?

Edwards:  I don’t think anybody knows.  I think if we do what I say, or even if we did what Bush and others want to do, I don’t think there’s any way to know what’s going to happen in Iraq.  I do think — the president has a responsibility to prepare for the best and to prepare for the worst, so we got to be ready, no matter what happens.

Asked later to identify his greatest weakness (3:15), Edwards suggests — after a long pause — that “sometimes I take longer than I should to make a decision” (he wants to get everybody’s views and perspectives), but that “once I make it, it is usually pretty strong and decisive.” 

He sure does seem to have thought through his Iraq policy.