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  • JUDY WOODRUFF: They are some of the gravest questions candidates have to confront, questions

  • about the use of military force and how and when they would deploy if they become president.

  • This weekend, the Democrats hoping to unseat the current commander in chief have been weighing

  • in on his pivotal decision to strike out at a top Iranian commander.

  • Amna Nawaz begins there.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: In a Democratic primary race dominated by domestic issues, it was issues of war and

  • peace overseas this weekend that deepened fault lines in the field.

  • SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), Presidential Candidate: War is the last response to international

  • conflict, not the first.

  • (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

  • AMNA NAWAZ: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been the sharpest critic so far of the

  • Trump-directed airstrike that killed top Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.

  • An Iraq War veteran in Dubuque, Iowa, asked Sanders how he'd prevent another war in the

  • region as president.

  • Sanders, in warning against future U.S. involvement in the Middle East, highlighted his own record

  • on these issues.

  • SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I not only voted against the war in Iraq. I helped lead the opposition

  • to the war in Iraq.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: In particular, a difference with former Vice President Joe Biden.

  • Candidate Biden has been stressing his foreign policy experience on the campaign trail. In

  • Des Moines this weekend, he claimed that he opposed the Iraq War -- quote -- "from the

  • very moment" the Bush administration started that military campaign.

  • JOSEPH BIDEN (D), Presidential Candidate: I opposed what he was doing, and spoke to

  • it.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: But as senator in 2002, Biden voted for the war in Iraq, voicing his opposition

  • in the years that followed.

  • Biden agreed that Soleimani's alleged crimes warranted the U.S. targeting him. Still, Biden

  • questioned the Trump administration's long-term Middle East strategy.

  • JOSEPH BIDEN: This is a crisis totally of Donald Trump's making.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a former Naval intelligence officer who served

  • in Afghanistan, took a similar approach.

  • PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), Presidential Candidate: Now, let's be clear, Qasem Soleimani was a

  • bad figure. He has American blood on his hands. None of us should shed a tear for his death.

  • But just because he deserved it doesn't mean it was the right strategic move.

  • SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), Presidential Candidate: We don't need more war in the Middle

  • East.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who walked back her initial strong

  • support for the airstrike, this weekend questioned its timing.

  • In an NBC interview, she suggested the president was trying to distract from other issues.

  • SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: We are not safer because Donald Trump had Soleimani killed. We are

  • much closer to the edge of war. I think the question people reasonably ask is, next week,

  • Donald Trump faces the start potentially of an impeachment trial. And why now? I think

  • people are starting to ask, why now did he do this?

  • AMNA NAWAZ: The new questions about force and foreign affairs come less than one month

  • before the Iowa caucuses.

  • A new CBS News poll shows a three-way tie in Iowa among Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg,

  • with Warren lagging in fourth. But she also got a boost today from a former primary rival:

  • JULIAN CASTRO (D), Former Presidential Candidate: There's one candidate I see who's unafraid

  • to fight like hell.

  • AMNA NAWAZ: An endorsement from former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, who was the primary

  • field's only Latino candidate before leaving the race last week. He is scheduled to join

  • Warren on the trail tomorrow in New York City.

  • For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz.

JUDY WOODRUFF: They are some of the gravest questions candidates have to confront, questions

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