Biden helps GOP make its case

Washington Post:

A week after a young state senator named Barack Obama stood in Chicago's Daley Plaza and denounced the move toward a "dumb war," Joseph R. Biden Jr. took to the well of the U.S. Senate to make a much more nuanced argument, both for a resolution that he knew could lead to the invasion of Iraq and for a diplomatic effort that he hoped would avert it.

Over three contentious days, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee made it clear that his support for President Bush's war resolution was designed to bolster the president's ability to get United Nations weapons inspectors back into Iraq. But he also stated clearly that Saddam Hussein had to be dealt with sooner or later. Ultimately, he voted to grant Bush the authority to invade.

With Biden now on the Democratic ticket, Obama's case against John McCain on the central issue of the war may well become far more complicated. Obama has declared time and again that he had the judgment to oppose the invasion of Iraq from the very beginning, despite political winds that gusted toward war. McCain, Obama says, did not.

McCain aides said Sunday they intend to use Obama's running mate against him. They want to make the presidential contest a two-against-one fight, with Obama on one side and Biden and McCain together on the other, not just on Iraq but on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Biden voted for, and the 2005 Republican energy bill, which Biden and McCain voted against.

"Ultimately, we look forward to a debate between Joe Biden and Barack Obama about whether Barack Obama has the judgment and experience to lead," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

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"The choice on Iraq in this election is clear and compelling," Wade said. "Joe Biden believes the war was a mistake. John McCain would still do it all over again. Joe Biden knows the Bush-McCain policy has weakened our hand fighting terrorism and finding Osama bin Laden. John McCain started beating the drums for war after September 11th and wants to double down on the Bush policy for four more years. If Barack Obama and Joe Biden had set Iraq policy these last six years rather than George Bush and John McCain, we wouldn't be in the hole we're in today."

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Joe Biden misses the strategic significance of our victory in Iraq.

The war in Iraq has weakened al Qaeda in ways that were unimagined at the time the war began. The enemy made the mistake of making Iraq the central front in their war against us and al Qaeda not only lost, but lost credibility with Muslims throughout the world. We now have an ally rather than an enemy in Iraq and their oil supply can be of significant benefit to the Europeans when they are being coerced by the Russians. In other words Iraq has added to the free market in oil at a time when Russia is adding like an adversary again.

Also of importance is the awful judgment of Biden and Obama last year in opposing a winning strategy and voting 60 times for defeat in Iraq. They would have given al Qaeda and radical Islam a victory they had not earned because they want to impose a political defeat on the President. Those votes were shameful and they both deserve to pay a political price for them.