A Running Commentary

Now that Barack Obama has named Sen. Joe Biden (DE) as his running mate, it’s time to take a look at some of the supposed experience and good judgment he brings to the ticket. Obama, after all, has less than none (meaning in addition to no experience he has said disturbing things that belie that absence).

Biden certainly does have experience in foreign policy, as he is a long-time member of on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. Unfortunately for Obama and those who would vote for him, Biden’s judgment in that position has often been atrocious. Even worse, Biden tends to maintain his wrong thinking in many areas even when proven wrong, and then attempts to take credit for gains that made DESPITE his efforts and contrary to his position.

Case in point: Iraq

As far back as May 2006, Biden has been advocating for a partition plan for Iraq. In brief, the theory is that the different factions within Iraq (Sunni, Shiite, Kurds, etc) can never be safely amalgamated into a single country. Thus, the country should be broken up into separate regional administrations, or worse, separate countries. In keeping with the general Democratic outlook and political angle at that time, Biden’s plan fell in line with Nancy Pelosi and many other Dems’ desires to withdraw US forces from Iraq by the end 2007, regardless of the consequences. (It was Pelosi who led the Democrat’s resolution in Congress condemning the ensuing surge into Iraq, advocated by Sen. John McCain and actualized by President Bush).

Amazingly, when Biden attempted to formalize the partition plan with a nonbinding resolution, he accomplished the near-impossible: he managed to UNITE all the competing factions in Iraq….AGAINST HIM. Consider these responses:

>For the government: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki went on the TV to call on “Biden [to] stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty,’ warning that the a partitioning would result in “disaster not just for Iraq but for the region.”
>For the Shiites: Abdul Mahdi al-Karbala’I, representing the Shiite’s most senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani, called it “a mistake to imagine that such a plan will lead to a reduction in chaos [but] rather an increase in the butchery and a deepening of the crisis of this country, and the spreading of increase chaos to neighboring states.”
>For the Sunnis: Hashrun Taie, member of the largest Sunni party in the Iraqi parliament called the plan a “dangerous partitioning based on sectarianism and ethnicity”. The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars was similarly averse,.
>For the Rebels: Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s supporter’s actually joined in the chorus against the Biden plan.
>For the neighbors: Both the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council denounced the Biden resolution.

In other words, virtually NO ONE of significance in Iraq thought Biden’s plan was a good idea. Crazy, yes, but sadly not the end of the story.

Biden is actually still advocating this plan over 3 years later, now as the Democrat’s Vice Presidential candidate. As with so many Democrats, Biden is at pains to admit that McCain and the President were right and the surge has worked. Once Iraqi’s got the feeling from the surge that we were actually going to make them safe while they rebuilt their country, they rededicated themselves to building coalitions and establishing peace. Many, many rebels have been defeated and still more have recognized the battle as largely lost and hitchhiked back across Iran to contribute their terrorist efforts in Afghanistan (unpleasant, but reality).

But none of this stopped Biden this past weekend from asserting on ‘Meet The Press’, straight-faced, that Iraq is in a better place now because “they’re doing the things I suggested; that’s why it’s moving toward some mild possibility of resolution”. It’s hard to assert that something is BOTH an unrelenting mess AND being resolved thanks to your efforts in the same sentence, but I suppose Biden deserves credit for the attempt.