Afternoon Forum Highlights Candidates’ Stands on Iraq War

by Mike Hall, Mar 14, 2007

The Fire Fighters union is hosting the nation’s first bipartisan presidential debate of the 2008 election season, and Mike Hall is live-blogging today from the meeting in Washington, D.C. Each candidate will speak for 15 minutes.

Sen. John McCain kicked off the afternoon session with a few jokes—mostly self-deprecating—and those were met with laughs. But his nearly 10-minute, somber but heartfelt, defense of the war in Iraq was met at best with polite applause.

He says he knows:

The war hasn’t gone well. The hour is late, but we must try, we must.

He warns if the United States leaves Iraq too soon, the U.S. homeland would be at risk.

We know who would be the first to sacrifice in the event of another attack.

McCain acknowledges:

That all those who support the war and those who opposed the war honor and support the men and women in uniform.

The remainder of his speech centered on the need for first responders to be properly equipped, especially with safety communications systems for all first responders.

Vocal war critic Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who is still deciding whether to run for the White House, called on everyone in the nation to come together and put aside the virulent partisanship that has become too common in politics.

The one dominate issue for the elections of 2008 is this nation’s search for a consensus of purpose—and must include a bipartisan consensus of purpose.”

Speaking next, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) says the nation asks much more from firefighters than putting out fires.

Today, as our population grows and as our buildings and infrastructure age, as our suburbs expand and our highways become more congested, we ask so much of you—pre-hospital emergency medical care, search-and-rescue missions—when a building collapses or a natural disaster occurs. You are the first ones on the scene whenever there is a release of hazardous materials.

He says for the past six years the nation’s leaders have:

squandered so much of what makes America great from our standing in the world to so much of our wealth at home, putting at risk both our leadership and American’s hope for a better life.

As did several candidates today, Dodd says America’s union movement is the key to rebuilding the middle class that has been battered by the Bush administration. Regarding collective bargaining rights for public safety workers, Dodd says:

The very least we can do for public safety officers, in an era when their role in homeland security is so pronounced, is to guarantee at least minimum collective bargaining rights—setting wages, hours and terms of employment.

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