Hillary Clinton has gotten into a tussle with the Defense Department’s undersecretary for policy because he wouldn’t give her the details of a withdrawal plan.

Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president, had asked the Pentagon to detail how it is planning for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq. She first raised the issue in May, pointing out that whenever troops leave, it will be no simple task to transport the people, equipment, and vehicles out of Iraq, possibly through hostile territory.Eric Edelman, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for policy, offered a sharply-worded response, saying such discussions boost the enemy.“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia,” Edelman wrote. His tough language in a letter obtained Thursday was surprising in part because it came in correspondence with a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has oversight of the Pentagon.Clinton responded Friday in a letter to Edelman’s boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking if he agreed with Edelman’s charge.She said Edelman had ducked her questions and “instead made spurious arguments to avoid addressing contingency planning.”“Undersecretary Edelman has his priorities backward,” Clinton wrote, calling his claim “outrageous and dangerous.”

Edelman’s letter also notes, “We are always evaluating and planning for possible contingencies. As you know, it is longstanding departmental policy that operational plans, including contingency plans, are not released outside of the department.”

Edelman was Ambassador to Turkey when I first arrived in Ankara. Can we deploy a variation of the chickenhawk charge? Perhaps we ought to trust his judgment on what revealing withdrawal plan would mean to the region, as he’s spent more time in the Middle East in the past four years than Hillary Clinton has in her whole life.

Hey, wait a minute… I’ve spent more time in the Middle East in the past four years than she has in her whole life.