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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Biden tried to un-declare the Iraq war

When President Bush announced the Iraq war "surge" in late 2007, Senator Biden was incensed. The Democrats had just taken over Congress on an anti-war platform and here the president was redoubling his efforts to win the war.

In response, Biden held what he described as an extraordinary news conference:
...when I asked myself what the most effective way to accomplish what my desire is, to stop this policy in the shortest amount of time, I concluded that to start with was to make it very clear -- at least on my part, which is unusual with me; I don't think in 34 years I have ever held a press conference between Christmas and New Year's; I don't think I have ever, ever made a public statement during that time, but I did -- to make it clear and hope that others shared my view that the President's idea was a very bad idea.
Biden's answer to this "very bad idea"?
The most significant way to do that -- and I've drafted such an amendment -- is to write a new authorization for the use of force. That would constitutionally render the first authorization of use of force null and void. It would redefine in very stark terms what the Congress believed the mission to be in Iraq and could and would severely limit the President continuing down this path of escalation.

It would eliminate his ability to do that. I drafted a resolution relating to the constitutional authority the President has to call up, again, the National Guard and Reserves in our respective states, which severely limit the President's ability to put more forces into Iraq.
The idea that Congress has the power to un-declare a war it has already declared, or can dictate to the president HOW to fight a war (a power granted exclusively to the president by the Constitution), is radical in the extreme.

It speaks volumes about Biden's judgment that he was prompted to these unconstitutional extremes by some kind of visceral opposition to the surge: an eminently reasonable war-fighting strategy by any historical or rational standard, fully expressive of our best understanding of effective counter-insurgency, as borne out by its rapid and overwhelming success.


Hillary Clinton followed Biden's un-declare the war lead

Biden's lead was influential. A couple weeks later, Senator Hillary Clinton released a presidential campaign video demanding immediate pullout from Iraq, or the Democrats would un-declare the war:
Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in 90 days or the Congress will revoke authorization for this war.

Biden also took the lead in trying to turn Iraq into "another Vietnam"

Senator Shumer was the most explicit about wanting to turn Iraq into "another Vietnam":
"There will be resolution after resolution, amendment after amendment .., just like in the days of Vietnam," Schumer said. "The pressure will mount, the president will find he has no strategy." ["Senate Demos Vow Flood of Anti-war Bills," McClatchy, February 18, 2007.]
But Biden's earlier remarks were already well down that road, as he talked about what else might be done to undermine the president's war-fighting efforts:
I also looked at the funding mechanism. I've been here -- I hate to admit it, but I've been here, I believe, longer than anyone --doesn't make me right -- longer than anyone sitting at this table, including my colleague from Indiana.

I got here when we were -- and I was -- and did support funding limitations on the President of the United States -- which we constitutionally can do -- during the Vietnam War. And we can do it now. We have the constitutional authority to do that.
Over the course of 2007, the Democrats would actually vote forty times to retreat from Iraq. Senator Biden was a key player in these relentless efforts to hand the heart of the Arab world over to al Qaeda and Iran.

Senator Obama, all the while, was a fully supportive bit player, who has remained adamant that if he had it to do over again, he would still be against the surge, despite its success. Why should anyone be surprised? He is simply saying what every mainstream Democrat still believes about Vietnam: that intentionally losing the Vietnam war was the best thing they ever did.

In fact it was the most evil deed ever committed by a free people, but that is how perverted mainstream Democrat thinking is at this point in history. Obama is simply carrying that perversion forward, as the rest of the Democrat party is doing in spirit, even if they are occasionally more circumspect in what they actually say.

But Biden is not particularly circumspect. He is right there with Schumer in thinking that handing Vietnam to the Communists was a great accomplishment, and he was perfectly sincere in thinking that handing Iraq to al Qaeda and Iran would be a great accomplishment too. Obama and Biden: peas in a pod. Both are functionally on the side of our terror war enemies.

Comments:
Well said Alec. I can't believe these crazy liberal scum bags! The Muslims will be running this country in no time if we don't act now!
 
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