Iowa Democratic Primary Debate: on War & Peace

Amy Klobuchar: I opposed Iraq War from the very beginning

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to trust that they weren't going to go to war, to stop what we thought to be Iraq's attempt to get a nuclear weapon.

Sen. Amy KLOBUCHAR: I wasn't in the Senate for that Iraq War vote, but I opposed that war from the very beginning. In my first campaign for Senate, I ran against a Republican who ran ads against me on it, but I stood my ground. When I got to the Senate, I pushed to bring our troops home. Then I have dealt with every issue, from Afghanistan to being part of an effort to improve the situation for our troops in a very big way with our education and with their jobs and also with their health care.

Amy Klobuchar: Trump is taking us pell-mell into war with Iran

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I was part of that deal to get the nuclear agreement with Iran, bringing together the rest of the world, including some of the folks who aren't friendly to us. And it was working. It was being held tightly. There was no movement on the part of the Iranian government to get closer to a nuclear weapon.

Amy Klobuchar: No Iranian nukes, via reinstating joint nuclear deal

Mayor Pete BUTTIGIEG: Ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons will be a priority,

KLOBUCHAR: I would not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I think there are changes you can make to the agreement, some changes to the inspections, but overall, that is what we should do.

Q: How would you prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon?

KLOBUCHAR: I would start negotiations again [on the JCPOA Iran nuclear deal]. Because of the actions of Donald Trump, we are in a situation where Iran is starting to enrich uranium again in violation of the original agreement. So what I would do is negotiate. I would bring people together, just as President Obama did years ago, and I think that we can get this done. But you have to have a president that sees this as a number-one goal.

Bernie Sanders: Great disasters of our time--Vietnam & Iraq--based on lies

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to trust that they weren't going to go to war, to stop what we thought to be Iraq's attempt to get a nuclear weapon.

SANDERS: We have to face as a nation is that the two great foreign policy disasters of our lifetimes were the war in Vietnam and the war in Iraq. Both of those wars were based on lies. And right now, what I fear is we have a president who is lying again and could drag us into a war that is even worse than the war in Iraq.

Bernie Sanders: Passed bipartisan War Powers Act to stop Yemen war

V.P. Joe BIDEN: I said 13 years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn't get inspectors into Iraq to stop what--thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon. It was a mistake, and I acknowledged that. But the man who also argued against that war, Barack Obama, picked me to be his vice president. And once we were elected, he asked me to end that war.

Bernie Sanders: Endless war in Iraq cost us trillions and 4,500 troops

V.P. Joe BIDEN: We should not send anyone anywhere unless the overwhelming vital interests of the United States are at stake. They were not at stake in Iraq. It was a mistaken vote. It was a mistake to trust that they weren't going to go to war. They said they were not going to go to war. They said they were just going to get inspectors in. From that point on, I was in the position of making the case that it was a big, big mistake. And from that point on, I've voted to--I moved to bring those troops home.

Elizabeth Warren: We cannot do everything with combat troops: out of Mideast

V.P. Joe BIDEN: There's a difference between combat troops and leaving special forces in a position. I was part of the coalition to put together 68 countries to deal with stateless terror as well as failed states. That's how we were able to end the caliphate for ISIS. They'll come back if we do not deal with them and we do not have someone who can bring together the rest of the world to go with us, with small numbers of special forces.

Joe Biden: Pull troops out of Mideast, except to patrol Gulf and ISIS

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: What we need to do is have an international coalition. The nuclear deal with Iran was worked on with a number of our allies.

BIDEN: I was part of that deal to get the nuclear agreement with Iran. And it was working. It was being held tightly. There was no movement on the part of the Iranian government to get closer to a nuclear weapon.

Q: So would you leave troops in the Middle East or would you pull them out?

BIDEN: I would leave troops in the Middle East in terms of patrolling the Gulf, where we have--where we are now, small numbers of troops, and I think it's a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS. And with regard to this idea that we can walk away and not have any troops anywhere, including special forces, there's no way you negotiate with terrorists.

Joe Biden: As veep, worked to end Iraq war

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: When Congress was debating whether or not we go into a war in Iraq, I said that would be a disaster. I helped pass a War Powers Act resolution, working with a conservative Republican, Mike Lee of Utah, which said that the war in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia, was unconstitutional because Congress had not authorized it. We got a majority vote in the Senate. We got a majority vote in the House. Unfortunately, Bush vetoed that and that horrific war continues.

Joe Biden: Iraq war vote mistake based on Bush/Cheney lies

Sen. Bernie SANDERS: The war in Iraq turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country. We lost 4,500 brave troops. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died. We have spent trillions of dollars on that endless war, money which should go into health care and education and infrastructure in this country. Joe and I listened to what Dick Cheney and George Bush & Rumsfeld had to say. I thought they were lying. I didn't believe them for a moment. Joe saw it differently.

Joe Biden: Leave special forces in Mideast, not just combat troops

Sen. Elizabeth WARREN: We need to get combat troops out of the Mideast. We have to stop this mindset that we can do everything with combat troops. Our military is the finest military on Earth and they will take any sacrifice we ask them to take. But we should stop asking our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily. Our keeping combat troops there is not helping. We need to work with our allies. We need to use our economic tools. We need to use diplomatic tools.

Pete Buttigieg: No Iranian nukes, via reinstating joint nuclear deal

BUTTIGIEG: Ensuring that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons will, of course, be a priority, because it's such an important part of keeping America safe. But unfortunately, President Trump has made it much harder for the next president to achieve that goal. By gutting the Iran nuclear deal--one that, by the way, the Trump administration itself admitted was working, certified that it was preventing progress toward a nuclear Iran--by gutting that, they have made the region more dangerous & set off the chain of events that we are now dealing with as it escalates even closer to the brink of outright war. We've got to work with our partners. The Iran nuclear deal, the technical term for it was the JCPOA. That first letter "J" stood for "Joint." We can't do this alone, even less so now after everything that has happened.

Pete Buttigieg: If troops go to war, will include 3-year sunset clause

Tom Steyer: Set a strategy: What are we trying to accomplish in Mideast?

STEYER: I would take military action to protect the lives and safety of American citizens. But what we can see in the Middle East and what this conversation shows is that there is no real strategy that we're trying to accomplish in what we're doing in the Middle East. Obviously, Mr. Trump has no strategy. He is going from crisis to crisis, from escalation to escalation. But if you look further over the last 20 years, including in the war in Afghanistan, there was no strategy. There was just a series of tactical decisions that made no sense. So we really have to ask ourselves in the Middle East, what are we trying to accomplish?

V.P. Joe BIDEN: We have lost our standing in the region. We have lost the support of our allies. The next president has to be able to re-establish our alliances.

STEYER: I agree with Vice President Biden. To do it, we should definitely be doing it in coalition with other countries.

Tom Steyer: It isn't so much about experience; it's about judgement

Sen. Elizabeth WARREN: The job of the commander-in-chief is to keep America safe. I think that's about judgment. It starts with knowing our military. I sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. I work with military leaders, but I also visit our troops. I make sure they get their pay, the housing and medical benefits they've been promised. We have a problem with a revolving door between the defense industry and the Pentagon. We need to block that revolving door, and we need to cut our defense budget.