LOS ANGELES — The current race for the White House might just prove to be a great clarifier on the Iraq war. This is undoubtedly the high-profile foreign-policy problem that the world would like our electoral system to resolve decisively.
At the moment, the three leading candidates to succeed George W. Bush each have separate and distinct positions on the war. Sen. John McCain, who just creamed his Republican opponents in the Florida primary, has clearly stated that he is for staying in Iraq until the job is done (whatever that means). The position of this brave war veteran on this or any gut-felt war deserves a measure of respect, even if we disagree with it. At least he is not vague and dithering and deceptively ambiguous.
One hundred and eighty degrees in the other direction is Sen. Barack Obama's view. He would evidently start withdrawing troops immediately. As Caroline Kennedy — daughter of John F. Kennedy — pointedly noted in a high-profile New York Times op-ed Sunday, Obama is the only prominent candidate who voted against the war from the start and has consistently opposed it.
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