Biden: 'Failed' Bush policy on Iraq 'emboldens the enemy'
Ron Brynaert
Published:
Sunday January 28, 2007
 A Democratic candidate for president has responded to comments made by the new Secretary of Defense, who blamed Congressional resolutions against President Bush's Iraq policies as giving aid to the "enemy."
Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week that it was the president's "failed" strategy which has "emboldened the enemy," not Congress.
Stephanopoulos asked Biden, "The administration is stepping up the rhetoric on your resolution. You saw the president, the vice-president, General Petraeus, all saying it would hurt morale and Pentagon Secretary Robert Gates added, 'It will embolden the enemy.' Are you worried that may be true?"
"No," Biden responded. "Not at all."
"It's not the American and the United States Congress who are emboldening the enemy," Biden continued. "It's the failed policy of this president, going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely, going to war without enough troops, going to war without enough equipment and, lastly, now sending 17,500 people in the middle of a city of six and a half million people with bulls-eyes on their back, with no plan."
Biden added, "There is no plan. He has tactics, George, but no plan."
Transcript from ABC's This Week:
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MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, everyone. The Senate is heading for a showdown with President Bush. A vote on legislation that says it is not in the national interest to increase troops in Iraq. And here with us this morning, the author of that resolution, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, Joseph Biden, along with the senior Republican on that committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana. Welcome to both of you.
And Senator Biden, let me begin with you. The administration is stepping up the rhetoric on your resolution. You saw the president, the vice-president, General Petraeus, all saying it would hurt morale and Pentagon Secretary Robert Gates added, "It will embolden the enemy."
Are you worried that may be true?
SEN. BIDEN: No. Not at all. It's not the American and the United States Congress who are emboldening the enemy. It's the failed policy of this president, going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely, going to war without enough troops, going to war without enough equipment and, lastly, now sending 17,500 people in the middle of a city of six and a half million people with bulls-eyes on their back, with no plan. There is no plan. He has tactics, George, but no plan.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lugar, you voted against this resolution. Why?
SEN. LUGAR: Essentially this resolution, others that are being offered, are an opportunity for people to vent their emotions, their thoughts, to get on record. Some Republicans want to do that. Some Democrats want to do that. I don't believe that it's helpful right now to show this disarray around the world as well as in our body politic.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me stop you there because, you know, we saw tens of thousands of protesters here this week. Polls show that two-thirds of Americans, almost, oppose this plan. Doesn't Congress at some point, at some level have a responsibility to give voice to that opposition?
SEN. LUGAR: Well, I think we can give voice to it. We can reflect it. Polls do every day. The point that I think we're making as a Congress right now is that -- as opposed to getting into simply a show of hands as to whether we are the two-thirds of the American public, and we try to do things that are constructive, we try to forge a congressional-presidential tie here.
The president can be faulted for a good number of things and we've reviewed those for the four years. But my hope is that reaching out to the president and JOE BIDEN does this very effectively, as well as the rest of us, we really need at this point to get on the same page. I got a call from the president five minutes to 8:00 on Friday. He wanted to talk briefly about Iraq and about energy policy. I've never had a call five minutes to 8:00 from any president and I've been writing some letters to the president. He tells me he's reading them.
Now, I hope that, you know, bit by bit we move in that direction. I don't fault the resolutions as being chaotic but I would say simply they are an attempt to vent current emotions, put people on record in various ways. They're not helpful to General Petraeus, to the troops, to the Iraqis, I think to the Americans, but we do need some policies that will be helpful and, hopefully, our committee can be constructive in forging those.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Biden, Vice President Cheney also says the resolutions aren't going to make any difference. How do you respond to that and the notion that Senator Lugar raises here that it's just not constructive to pass a non-binding resolution?
SEN. BIDEN: Look, I think when I announced my opposition to the troops after Christmas, drafted this resolution, got co-sponsorship for it, I don't know, but I respectfully suggest maybe the president wouldn't be calling Senator Lugar at five minutes to 8:00 in the morning were this resolution not out there. I respectfully suggest the ground has moved beneath the president's feet. John McCain, I doubt, would be coming forward with hard benchmarks, allegedly he's going to have an amendment.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: For the Iraqi government to meet.
SEN. BIDEN: For the Iraqi government to meet. I doubt whether John Warner would be coming forward with a resolution saying he disapproves. The fact of the matter is that there's no question, there is a movement in the United States Congress to say to the president, "Mr. President, listen to us. You didn't listen to the Iraqi Study Group. You didn't listen to my plan, not that he should, you didn't listen to any plan. You took a path that was fundamentally different than 95 percent of the advice you were given.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lugar, Senator Biden mentions the Senate resolution authored by the former Armed Services Committee Chairman, Senator Warner. It simply states the Senate disagrees with the policy of sending more troops. Can you sign on to that?
SEN. LUGAR: No, I don't think it's at all helpful. I've indicated in my testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee that I have doubts about the surge situation, both in terms of the number of people and so forth. On the other hand, General Petraeus, if anybody can pull it off, is the man, and I would just say that I was impressed that the Iraqi Parliament met on Thursday, you know, after a story in The New York Times that only 65 people showed up a few days before. They went out at it very hard and fast and we had testimony that the United States pretty well knocked out all of the law enforcement of Iraq, plus the army, plus everything, but bit by bit there are 50 sheiks in al Anbar who are Sunnis, a very unusual foreign policy being formulated by our Secretary of State bringing the Sunni countries together in some sort of coalition.
In other words, there's movement here that is important to note. This is why I would like not to get bogged down into sort of the referendum on where we all stand.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: It looks like there's going to be several different referendums, Senator Biden. The White House and the Senate leaders are working on a lot of different resolutions. I think the strategy is to dilute the impact of your resolution.
Do you think that that's going to work in holding down Republican support? You're obviously not going to get Senator Lugar here.
SEN. BIDEN: The truth of the matter is, listen to what Senator Lugar just said. Did you see any of that movement all last year before introducing this resolution? Did you see any of that movement? Was a single solitary thing just mentioned, a single one of those things occur absent bringing it to a head in the United States Senate?
So it's less important, George, in my view, what the vote on my resolution and Levin's and Hagel, etc., resolution, or Warner's, what's important is the voices you're going to hear. I make a prediction to you. You will hear when this debate begins the first time we will have had a full-throated debate on this policy.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Likely to have all 100 senators on the floor.
SEN. BIDEN: All of the senators. That's my guess. That's my guess, whether 100 or not, the first time you're going to hear a full- throated debate, I will make you a bet you will not find 20 percent of the Senate standing up and saying the president is headed in the right direction.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you believe the president's headed in the right direction?
SEN. LUGAR: I am hopeful that he is. Now, he's made a decision, you know, some of us have had an opportunity to talk to him and suggest alternatives and other plans. I respect the fact you have just one president at a time. He is the president and he's made a decision. He may have made up his mind before he started visiting with us. I hope not. But for the moment we've got to make this work as best we can and it just seems to me that the votes are not helpful. Now, the debate probably is. The hearings we're having are very important. Because the poverty of knowledge about Iraq in the Senate is still very, very large, and that includes myself. I'm learning every day.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: I think that's hard for me to believe, but I'm sure we're learning more about Iraq every day. Let me turn to Iran. The administration is also stepping up the pressure on Iranian operatives inside Iraq. Here's Secretary Gates.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT GATES: (From videotape.) We are trying to uproot these networks that are planting IEDs that are causing 70 percent of our casualties. And if you are in Iraq and trying to kill our troops, then you should consider yourself a target.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Now, he did go on to say he doesn't think the United States needs to go into Iran, but a few weeks ago, Senator Biden, you wrote the president a letter saying you don't believe he has the authority to go into Iran. Did you get an answer?
SEN. BIDEN: No. But, look, George, I agree with Gates. There's no question that we have to do everything we can to protect American troops and that includes hot pursuit across the border as a practical matter.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: But to take military action against --
SEN. BIDEN: But to take military action against Iran, he needs authority to do that. Look, this president, as my mother would say, "God love him," has no credibility. He exaggerated the rationale for going to war with Iraq. He exaggerated the intelligence. The Vice President of the United States was a party to that, as we're seeing right now in the trial with Scooter Libby. And the problem is, we don't -- there's not a lot of trust in the administration's assessment about what is going on. If it's important enough to go to war with 72 million people, if it gets to that, that's not what Gates is talking about, but if it's important enough to go to war with 72 million people in Iran, it's important enough to come back to the United States Congress, present the evidence, and get approval or disapproval.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you agree with that?
SEN. LUGAR: Yeah, the president would need authority. But I would just mention, there's been now a very good United Nations resolution with regard to Iran. We moved a carrier over into the Persian Gulf area. We've made these declarations about hunting down Iranians inside of Iraq, and the debate in Iran is becoming more interesting. The young president is under some pressure.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: From Ayatollah Khomeni.
SEN. LUGAR: There's some movement. And Secretary Rice's lining up of all these Sunni countries is largely because they're worried about Iran. They feel it's become the most powerful country, including Israel. Maybe even some movement with regard to Hamas and with regard to the Hezbollah (unintelligible) So this is a story that's very, very important running right alongside the Iraq story.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: There's another story that's very, very important running alongside Iraq. It's the presidential story. Senator Biden, you're going to announce on Wednesday that you are in the race.
SEN. BIDEN: I'm the 800th candidate to announce, yes.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Exactly. We need David Letterman. The first test -- 25 words or less why should Democrats nominate you?
SEN. LUGAR: Because I think the president has dug us in a deep hole. The president's foreign policy has made us more vulnerable. His economic policy has made the middle class more vulnerable. My life story, my record, best prepares me to deal with those two issues.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: And I think that was under 25 words. But let me then have you expand on something else.
SEN. BIDEN: Okay. No one ever asked me to expand. I'm flattered.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, we're here to flatter, here you go. How do you get to the nomination when you've got candidates like Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, Senator Edwards sucking up all of the energy out there? Delaware is not one of the early, early states. What is the path to victory?
SEN. BIDEN: The path to victory is Iowa, New Hampshire, the path to victory is slow. The path to victory is not one time, as anyone in Iowa won. Anybody who has ever won in Iowa, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, has been the one with the most competence, the most experience, and the most foreign policy capability. Number two. Number three, I'm not doing bad in Iowa. I've been on this program talking about South Carolina and I have significant and deep support in South Carolina.
I mean, look, it comes down to a simple thing. This is a marathon. If people learn my story, learn my record, I think I can compete. The question is, can I raise the money? I think I need $20 million to get me into and through Iowa.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: You're not going to put up a 1-800 number here, are you, or a web site?
SEN. BIDEN: No, no. I won't do that. But you understand, I mean, I'm just, look, I know you've forgotten more about presidential campaigns than most people know, but it's -- I am absolutely confident. If I get to stand on a stage, sit in a room with all the candidates you just mentioned, I'll do just fine.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lugar, we're just about out of time. But I was at the White House this weekend and a top White House official said, basically, that the Senate Relations Committee work has become infected with presidential politics, so many candidates. Is that what you find?
SEN. LUGAR: Not infected, invigorated. (Laughter) There are many candidates and there may be more, but Joe will be a good one.
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Lugar, Senator Biden, thank you both very much.
SEN. BIDEN: Thanks an awful lot.
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