By John Temple Ligon
Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware was in Columbia last March to speak with USC students. Monday, November 27, he returned, this time to Seawell’s on Rosewood to address the Columbia Rotary Club. He’s likely to find another audience in town in the near future. He’s taking a shot at running for the presidency. As Biden put it, South Carolina’s early primaries could decide who gets the nomination in either party.
Biden began with some self-identification and some borrowed wisdom. He enjoyed sharing quotations from columnist David Broder: “Biden offers alternatives and real solutions.”
Biden told the crowd his bipartisanship credentials were held in high regard in Washington circles. As evidence, Biden was asked by the Thurmond family to deliver the eulogy, having served with S.C.’s Sen. Strom Thurmond on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Biden remembered his father’s advice on family relations. He was told the more certain he was right in an argument with his wife, the sooner he should apologize.
Biden recognized S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster in the audience and reminded everyone Biden’s son is the attorney general in Delaware.
With the Democrats in the majority, the U.S. Senate’s call for bipartisanship is heard especially by Biden. “No one can lead with a 51% majority,” he declared. America has too much of the red vs. blue contest going on, he said, and what America needs is more purple, more of a blend.
Biden recalled calling for another 100,000 troops early on in Iraq. Even military man Sen. John McCain said Biden was getting hysterical by calling for an additional 100,000 troops so soon in the occupation. But now McCain and many others agree with Biden’s early assessment and solution.
Getting real, Biden said there was no possibility of a liberal democracy in Iraq. But there was the chance for a republic if the moves are made now before it’s too late.
Biden feels the U.S. must quickly take concrete steps to recognize the need for the Iraqis to find a political solution soon. Biden complained of the abject lack of a plan inside the Bush administration, and he invited the Rotarians to review his plan on www.PlanforIraq.com.
“The Iraq situation is a full-blown civil war,” Biden said, “a sectarian cycle of revenge where there is no military solution.
“We Americans tend to want freedom and peace for Iraq more than Iraq wants freedom and peace for Iraq, which is an unworkable quandary. We cannot tell the Iraqi people what to do or what they want,” said Biden.
Regardless of a direction or no direction, regardless of a plan or no plan, Iraq doesn’t have the bureaucracy to carry it out. There is no infrastructure.
Biden concluded by saying a bipartisan plan for a solution must be decided in the next six months, not later.
Biden’s chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Policy Committee begins in the new Congress in January.
Leave a Reply