When asked if all American troops would be home from Iraq by the end of their first term, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barak Obama all stated correctly that they couldn’t commit to that.

Unfortunately, that is a technically correct, nevertheless wrong answer.

Here’s the correct answer:

If I were sworn into office today, I would have all combat troops out of Iraq within one year. We would have troops to maintain security at our embassy in Baghdad, we would have some troops as advisers to the Iraqi government as they request, and some troops in the region, but there would be no troops engaged in combat and the occupation of Iraq would be over. As for January, 2009, President Bush has mismanaged this war. We have no idea what he might do to make matters worse, so I cannot commit to where we will be in January 2013 – the end of my first term – when we have 15 more months of the incompetent and dangerous Bush administration before I will have an opportunity to get started.