Democrats square off over war on terror

Democratic presidential candidates have clashed on Iraq and over the security of the US since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, trailing both New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in national polls, criticised their cautious approach in forcing President Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq.

While some members of Congress spoke out “loudly and clearly” last month against legislation to pay for the war through September but without a withdrawal timetable, “others did not,” Edwards said.

“They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote. But there is a difference between leadership and legislating,” Edwards told his rivals during the second Democratic debate in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Both Clinton and Obama voted against the bill – which passed – but without making a strong case against the legislation.

“I think it’s obvious who I’m talking about,” Edwards said.

Clinton disagreed with Edwards, both in his comments on her role on Iraq and in his characterisation of Bush’s global war on terrorism as a “political slogan, a bumper sticker”.

As a New Yorker, “I have seen first hand the terrible damage that can be inflicted on our country by a small band of terrorists,” Clinton said.