Past and present Senate candidates from Georgia: on War & Peace

Jim Barksdale: No wars of choice without clear purpose & exit strategy

Jim's top priority is keeping Americans safe. At times, American foreign policy choices have led to decisions that have ultimately not made us safe, like the disastrous 2003 Iraq War that Jim vigorously opposed.

The Iraq War cost way too much in American lives, distracted our focus from Afghanistan and finding Osama Bin Laden. The resulting instability has left the United States in the middle of a religious conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims and given rise to ISIS.

The war, paid for with borrowed money, also put significant pressures on our long term debt and short term deficits, and will continue to have significant budget consequences for the foreseeable future. It also put pressures on our VA system that must be addressed.

Derrick Grayson: Non-intervention: Bring our troops home immediately

• 900 military bases in 150 countries is not the answer...that is an empire
• Bring our troops home immediately
• Giving up liberty for safety never works
• Non-intervention, as advocated by our founders, rather than being the world's policeman
• Stop borrowing and printing money to fight unjust, undeclared wars
• Stop sending tax payer money as `foreign aid` to sovereign nations

Rand Knight: Get out of Iraq within 12-18 months

We have a massive opportunity to invest in renewable energy and jobs in this country and instead we’re dumping money in a country because they have oil. I doubt if there were not one drop of oil in Iraq that we would have been there this long. If it were human rights that we were concerned about, we would be helping the people of Darfur and other countries.

We need to withdraw within the next twelve to eighteen months & have the United Nations security force help us out. Right now our leaders have no exit strategy and we are ignoring the pain of our own people.