Smiling Senator Joe Biden and His Purple Ink-Stained Finger in Iraq
ELIZABETH VARGAS: You came here, you observed some polling sites in Hilla. What were your impressions?
SEN. JOE BIDEN: Very well organized. People voting, people anxious to vote, and I thought it was extremely well run.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: I saw a lot of people who were excited about the opportunity to pick your own leaders, but we asked enough questions to know that this election is not the end of it for the American presence here. It's really just beginning for the Iraqi people, but today is a good day. We witnessed a well run election. People were very brave to go vote, and every American should appreciate the opportunity to vote because people here do.
VARGAS: In fact, at great risk.
GRAHAM: Joe and I started the morning as a Republican and Democrat with a rocket going off about 300 meters from where we were being housed. So to vote here, you really got to want to vote.
VARGAS: How does what you saw today affect your idea of the time table? Does it make you more optimistic or less optimistic that Americans could be coming home soon?
GRAHAM: We could stay here a 100 years and not solve the problem without a political solution — where the Iraqi people chart their own destiny. But if we leave anytime soon, that political solution will fail because they don't have the infrastructure or the capacity yet to govern themselves. There's no banking system. Can you imagine living in a country without a banking system? The mail doesn't work. Less than three to four years ago, people lived under the iron fist of a dictator. The police force has a long way to go before it really is able to protect people and their property.
BIDEN: But the bottom line is we're going to have a significant draw down of American troops in '06 no matter what happens. We're either going to be leaving here with Iraq having traded a dictator for chaos, or leaving here having traded a dictator for some stability. And that will be done in the next six months.
VARGAS: I know Gen. [George] Casey [the highest-ranking military commander in Iraq] told me last night that leaving prematurely would be in his words "catastrophic."
BIDEN: Well I'm not talking about leaving prematurely. They either are going to get a political solution through their constitution by this June … If they get it, we're going to be well on our way to drawing down. If they don't get it, in my view, all the king's horses and all the king's men will not be able to hold Iraq together in the midst of a civil war.
So, Joe Biden is telling Bush what to do by stating that in 06 we'll have significant drawdown in Iraq no matter what we happens? I think that is a bit premature. Even Rumsfeld on Foxnews with O'Reilly last night think a drawdown from 160,000 to around 137, 000 in 06 would be significant enough to begin with. But coming from Biden he's still the naysayer.
What's more, I think Biden has just set a precedence in his sudden surprise visit in Iraq, and throughout all the past two years have never supported President Bush with all the disparagement he lobbed at him and the troops will Biden take the opportunity to claim victory in Iraq once victory is complete. I think there will be a significant shift from Democrats to claim victory in Iraq once they realize just how victorious it has become. Biden sounds like the first one with his smiling face while holding up a purple ink-stained finger for photogs.
Believe me. Victory won't belong to anybody who have never supported the troops, President Bush, the Iraqis and/or the coalition troops. Just watch. Victory is concept, not a trick here. They'll soon claim victory as their own doing when it was the opposite by trying to undermine the war effort all the way through.
It's not a far-fetched thought here. Something Democrats will want to have for their 2006 dinner plate, as well as for 2008 should Iraq become stupendously successful and victorious.
posted by . | 7:27 PM
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