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Joe Biden on Iraq and Foreign Policy
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
Q: How do we pull out now, without opening Iraq up for Iran and Syria? BIDEN: We can't just pull out now. Let's get something straight. It's time to start to tell the truth. The truth of the matter is: If we started today, it would take one year, one year to get 160,000 troops physically out of Iraq, logistically. That's number one. Number two, you cannot pull out of Iraq without the follow-on that's been projected here, unless you have a political solution. I'm the only one that's offered a political solution. And it literally means separate the parties; give them jurisdiction in their own areas; have a decentralized government, a federal system.
2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC Jul 23, 2007
No one has fought harder to change Bush's policy [than I have]. Matter of fact, the very language that was vetoed in the bill was language that I and, along with Senator Levin, put in, and I suggested over a year ago in a proposal I laid forward, that is, start to draw down troops immediately, have them all out by '08.
2007 Dem. debate at Saint Anselm College June 3, 2007
Q: Your vote on Thursday was reported as: "The Senate approved $124 billion Iraq war spending bill that would force troop withdrawals to begin as early as July 1." Why did you vote for a bill that had a timetable for withdrawal? BIDEN: That language is actually the language that Carl Levin and I drafted, which said that, "Mr. President, you got to start moving combat troops out of harm's way now."
Meet the Press: Meet the Candidates 2008 series Apr 29, 200
Voted YES on redeploying US troops out of Iraq by March 2008
US Policy in Iraq Resolution; Bill S.J.Res.9 ; vote number 2007-075 on Mar 15, 2007
Voted NO on redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007
Kerry Amendment to National Defense Authorization Act; Bill S.Amdt. 4442 to S. 2766 ; vote number 2006-181 on Jun 22, 2006
The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee [Biden] on Sunday defended a resolution that opposes sending more U.S. troops to Iraq and said the majority of his colleagues do not support President Bush on Iraq.
We should be drawing down troops, putting more pressure on the Iraqi government to settle their sectarian differences rather than putting more troops and acting as apartheid cops. I'm saying what the Baker Commission said, 'start a drawdown,' and make clear that by the end of next year, we aren't going to be there to save them.
I said that four years ago; I say it now. The only rational purpose for troops in Iraq now: train Iraqis, prevent al-Qaeda from occupying large chunks of territory, and we should begin to decentralize the government.
Meet the Press: Meet the Candidates 2008 series Apr 29, 200
Q: You said in Oct. 2002: "We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after." Do you believe we'll be in Iraq for a decade? BIDEN: Before we went to war, I wrote a report saying the decade after, and everyone was talking about the day after. And the point I was making was, if you went in and used force, which he should not have done when he did it, that we were committing and signing on to a decade. That was the minimum requirement.
Meet the Candidates 2008 series Apr 29, 2007
Q: Some of your opponents in the Democratic primary say there will be no residual force left in Iraq? BIDEN: They are mistaken. They are making a mistake that is not practical. I don't know how that can work. Q: Senators Reid and Feingold have a bill that says: "No funds appropriated may be expended to continue the deployment in Iraq after March 31st, 2008." Do you support that? BIDEN: No. Q: Why? BIDEN: Here's where we may end up. This president makes it so difficult to reach the objective--which is to leave Iraq, leaving behind a country secure within its own borders, not a threat to its neighbors, that is a loosely federated republic. It may get so bad that we do not have that option, and the only option we have available to us is to withdraw and try to contain the civil war inside Iraq. We are not there yet. And until we reach that point, I am not prepared to say there are no circumstances under which, after a date certain, we would not have a single troop inside of Iraq.
Meet the Press: Meet the Candidates 2008 series Apr 29, 2007
BIDEN: I have been calling for three years to stop talking and start acting. We don't have to wait to get out of Iraq to regain our moral authority. We've lost part of our moral authority because we stood by and watched this carnage. And if need be, if the rest of the world will not act, we should, and should have already--two years ago--imposed a no-fly zone, and we should have--two years ago, absent the willingness of the rest of the world to act--put American troops on the ground to stop the carnage.
2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University Jun 28, 2007
Q: In the past, you've talked about NATO troops in Darfur. What about American troops? BIDEN: Absolutely, positively. Look, I'm so tired of this. I heard the same arguments after I came back from meeting with Milosevic: We can't act; we can't send troops there. Where we can, America must. Why Darfur? Because we can. We should now. Those kids will be dead by the time the diplomacy is over. 2500 American troops can stop the genocide now. I have called for a no-fly zone, but you need troops on the ground.
2007 YouTube Democratic Primary debate, Charleston SC Jul 23, 2007
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for "hard-headed diplomacy" with Iran. Biden says he supports direct engagement with the country [Iran]. He also has called for the implementation of "coordinated international sanctions" on Iran, adding "we should complement this pressure by presenting a detailed, positive vision for U.S.-Iran relations if Iran does the right thing."
Sen. Biden (D-DE) is a self-described Zionist. Biden believes the United States should maintain extremely close ties with Israel, because in his experience, the Middle East has only progressed when "the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and Israel," as he said in a March 2007 interview with Forward. Biden dismissed the Iraq Study Group's claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is related to the problems of the Iraq War, saying on Shalom TV in March 2007 that Israel's behavior has "nothing to do" with Iraq. Biden cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. That act, which passed, expressed U.S. support for a two-state solution. It also deemed the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organization and cut off all U.S. funding until it renounces terrorism, acknowledges Israel's right to exist, and holds up its former agreements with Israel. He has regularly supported military and financial aid packages to Israel throughout his long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman.
Sen. Biden (D-DE) has supported the U.S. policy of economic embargo and now calls for the development of a strategy for democratization in a post-Castro Cuba. In a CNN interview in 2006, Biden said, "We should be putting together a plan as to how we are going to play a positive role in moving that country, after the Castros are gone, to more toward democratization and liberalization in their society." In 1996, Biden voted for the Helms- Burton Act, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act. That act, which was passed, sought more stringent international sanctions against the Castro government.
Voted YES on strengthening of the trade embargo against Cuba.
Conference Report on H.R. 927; Bill H.R. 927 ; vote number 1996-22 on Mar 5, 1996
Biden sponsored the Hunger to Harvest bill: In an effort to reduce hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, urges the President to: 1. set forth five-year and ten-year strategies to achieve a reversal of current levels of hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, including a commitment to contribute an appropriate U.S. share of increased bilateral and multilateral poverty-focused resources for sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on health (including HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment), education, agriculture, private sector and free market development, democratic institutions and the rule of law, micro-finance development, and debt relief; and 2. work with the heads of other donor countries and sub-Saharan African countries and with private and voluntary organizations and other civic organizations to implement such strategies; and calls for 3. Congress to undertake a multi-year commitment to provide the resources to implement those strategies; and 4. the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development to report on such implementation.
House Resolution Sponsorship 01-HCR102 on Apr 4, 2001
Voted NO on cap foreign aid at only $12.7 billion.
H.R. 2606 Conference Report; Bill H.R. 2606 ; vote number 1999-312 on Oct 6, 1999
Sen. Biden (D-DE) has called the United Nations "an essential forum for the advancement of U.S. foreign policy and national security interests." At a speech on the sixtieth anniversary of the Unitd Nations in 2005, Biden praised reform efforts, including the establishment of the Human Rights Council to replace the Human Rights Commission, a change which he said would "more effectively advance the rights and freedoms that continue to be denied to far too many." He also praised the creation of the Peacebuilding Commission, aimed at bolstering fragile states.
Committed to reducing nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 warheads.