PrintApril 9, 2009
Biden Sings a New Tune on the Iraq War
Today, Vice President Joe Biden sings a different tune about the Iraq War than he sang 18 months ago.
This week, Biden spoke at a welcoming event for members of the XVIII Airborne Corps returning to Fort Bragg, N.C. after 15 months deployment in Iraq. He said,
Fifteen months ago, our country called you to serve in Iraq. For some of you this was not your first deployment. You arrived in a country that was on the brink of a civil war, a country that I first visited over six years ago...You went in the midst of what was an uncertain future for Iraq, and you left -- you left five or six days ago -- you left behind a country in which violence is being replaced by progress.
Over the course of your deployment, you dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda and Iraq by taking the fight to them in the north, by moving out into Anbar Province, by taking on the Shia extremists in the south, and by stemming the flow of weapons and foreign fighters along that broad, open, expansive border in Iraq. You helped secure the provincial elections, which I might add, as you'll remember, General, were very much in doubt. Everybody acts now like this was a done deal, this was a certainty, but it was not -- it was not. So you have made sure those provincial elections took place at the beginning of this year, the first of what will be basically four elections in that country.
Over the course of your deployment, you dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda and Iraq by taking the fight to them in the north, by moving out into Anbar Province, by taking on the Shia extremists in the south, and by stemming the flow of weapons and foreign fighters along that broad, open, expansive border in Iraq. You helped secure the provincial elections, which I might add, as you'll remember, General, were very much in doubt. Everybody acts now like this was a done deal, this was a certainty, but it was not -- it was not. So you have made sure those provincial elections took place at the beginning of this year, the first of what will be basically four elections in that country.
If that’s not a declaration of ‘Mission Accomplished,” it’s sure close to it.
Compare those comments to what Biden said during a September 2007 Democratic Party primary debate:
Q: Do you accept the evaluation and interpretation by Gen. Petraeus as to the situation on the ground in Iraq and leading him to conclude that he needs 160,000 troops until July 2008?
A: [Biden] Absolutely not. I think it’s the wrong strategy. We should be drawing down troops now. We should be in the middle of the 2008, down to 30,000 to 40,000 troops with an end date of getting out of there based upon a political settlement where you set up a federal system there.
A: [Biden] Absolutely not. I think it’s the wrong strategy. We should be drawing down troops now. We should be in the middle of the 2008, down to 30,000 to 40,000 troops with an end date of getting out of there based upon a political settlement where you set up a federal system there.
So what? you ask. Politicians often shift their positions as events change, and even when they don’t. But isn’t it interesting how U.S. military efforts in Iraq, as portrayed by Biden and the MSM, quickly shifted from failure to success after the election?
Also, in his remarks, Biden told the members of the XVIII Airborne Corps,
So I say to all of you assembled on this field today: You are the best trained; you are the bravest; you are the most conditioned; you are the best force America has ever assembled.
The “best force” American ever assembled? These soldiers are unquestionably brave, well conditioned, and superbly trained. As good as any American force ever assembled. But, the “best force American has ever assembled”?
Braver than the Continental Army soldiers who stood with Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens? Than Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine at Little Round Top? The Marines at Guadalcanal? The sailors and captain (posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor) of the USS Johnston at the Battle of Leyte Gulf? Better trained than the airmen who flew with Jimmy Doolittle?
Just as brave, just as well conditioned, just as well trained -- but the best ever?
How many times did the MSM remind us that Vice President Dick Cheney avoided service in the military during the Vietnam War through student deferments? Hundreds of times.
On September 8, 2008, an American Thinker article noted that:
Biden turns out to have received the same number of student draft deferments during the Vietnam War as did Cheney -- five. Then, according to this quote from one of his campaign spokespersons, David Wade, “As a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified I-Y and disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager.”
But wait, in his memoir, according to the same Washington Times story linked above, “In ‘Promises to Keep,’ a memoir that was published last year and became an instant best-seller after he was tapped as Mr. Obama's running mate, Mr. Biden never mentions his asthma, recounting an active childhood, work as a lifeguard and football exploits in high school.”So, during the Vietnam War, Biden receives five student deferments that saw him through law school, and then checked the box marked “asthma” and got a medical deferment at age 25.
When it comes to the bravest American force ever assembled, how would Joe know?
