“The core of this presidency has been a political doctrine that George Bush calls the ‘Global War on Terror,’ ” said Democratic Party presidential candidate John Edwards at a campaign rally at the Council on Foreign Relations.  “He has used this doctrine like a sledgehammer to justify the worst abuses and biggest mistakes of his administration, from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, to the war in Iraq.”

Now wait a minute.  I have no qualms with Edwards believing the GWOT is nothing more than a bumber sticker as he said later, however Edwards is saying the Bush Administration wanted Abu Ghraib and that there’s something wrong with Guantanamo.  In fact the only thing wrong with Guantanamo is that people like Edwards, that is to say the $400 a hair cut types, criticize the detention center without even knowing any of the facts involved or offering an alternative to keep those detained within.

“We need a post-Bush, post-9/11, post-Iraq military that is mission focused on protecting Americans from 21st century threats, not misused for discredited ideological purposes,” Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery. “By framing this as a war, we have walked right into the trap the terrorists have set—that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war on Islam.”

Should Bush instead of called the conflict the ‘discussion with those who want to kill us?’  What really gets me is that Edwards considers the many theaters of the GWOT as ideological wars, which they actually are, but Edwards considers them Bush ideological wars as opposed to, say, Islamism versus the so-called West.

And there’s the Democratic Party’s leading candidate in Iowa.