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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (29138)	7/19/2005 3:32:28 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 361197

Scooter is the only person nasty enough to be Cheney's Chief of Staff.

To: American Spirit who wrote (29138)	7/19/2005 3:58:40 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 361197

Biden echoes Bush on Iraq ____________________________________________ By HELEN THOMAS HEARST NEWSPAPERS Tuesday, July 19, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., wants to run for president, but right now he sounds like an echo chamber for President Bush's failed policies on Iraq. After reading his recent remarks to the Brookings Institution following his return from his fifth fact-finding trip to Baghdad last month, I'd tell Biden: "Forget it." The senator is going to have to come up with better solutions for the Iraqi dilemma than he is offering. It's not much different from the "stay the course" blueprint that Bush has laid down. Biden had a lot to say about his most recent journey to Iraq -- and little of it was good. He wants the United States to see the war through to a successful finish, build up U.S. and Iraqi force levels and win back the confidence of the American people. The history of his own experiences in Iraq is a yardstick of the failed U.S. policy there. When he arrived in Baghdad last month, Biden said, he had to put on body armor and hustle to a Black Hawk helicopter. "You travel from the red zone to the green zone -- the green zone is the supposed safe zone, the rest of Baghdad is the red zone," he said. The senator -- who is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- contrasted that visit to his first trip in the spring of 2003. Back then, he was able to ride around Baghdad relatively freely. He could walk the streets and safely enter commercial buildings. He couldn't even remember whether he wore a bulletproof vest. His most recent trip was "very, very different," he said. Biden said he found the insurgency just as bad as it was a year ago, but that more of the jihadists are "coming across the border, and they are an increasingly lethal part of the problem." With the number of insurgent attacks running between 60 and 70 a week, Biden said, there are not enough U.S. forces or trained Iraqi troops to mount a serious counterinsurgency effort. "In short," he said, "I did not come away with the impression that the insurgency was, as the vice president of the United States suggested, in its 'last throes.' " Biden also noted opinion polls showing that U.S. public support for the war is waning, with growing sentiment in favor of a withdrawal of some or all of the troops. He said there also is a feeling that the war in Iraq has not made Americans feel safer. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's remark that the Iraq insurgency could last 12 years did not make them feel any happier, either. Nevertheless, Biden is an optimist. He said he still believes "we have a shot, a serious shot" of succeeding in Iraq and that it would be a disaster if the U.S. fails. He warned that if Iraq disintegrates, it could become "a playground for Iraq's neighbors and a training ground for terrorists." "This is a real possibility," he said. He said it would be a "gigantic mistake" for the U.S. to pull out of Iraq -- and "equally a mistake" to set a departure deadline. Biden called for training more Iraqi soldiers and policeman and urged the U.S. to press NATO allies to come up with a small force to help guard the border with Syria. Biden will learn that his "me too" loyal support of the president's foreign policy is not the way to win the presidency. Just ask John Kerry. Helen Thomas writes for Hearst Newspapers. She can be reached at 202-263-6400 or at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com