See other (s)Elections Articles
Title: Joe Biden: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Source:
CFR
URL Source: http://www.cfr.org/bios/1451/joseph_r_biden_jr.html
Published: Aug 23, 2008
Author: CFR
Post Date: 2008-08-23 17:53:32 by Arator
Keywords: Biden, Mixed, Bag
Views: 186
Comments: 13
The Good: For years, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been calling for the prison camp at Guantanamo to be shut down, saying it has “become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world.” Biden says the prisoners should be moved to the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has cosponsored legislation that would release all Guantanamo prisoners who have not been charged. This would mean releasing nearly all the prisoners. Biden voted against the Military Commissions Act. Sen. Biden (D-DE), who was in the Senate at the passage of FISA in 1978, spoke out against Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, which he called “unconstitutional” and an “illegal expansion of presidential power” in a January 2006 Miami Herald op-ed. But like many of his fellow candidates who have spoken out on this issue, Biden’s objections to the program appear to lie more in Bush’s circumvention of the courts than in the eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. “There is nothing the president needed to do to protect Americans that could not have been done through FISA,” said Biden, citing provisions in the act for emergency seventy-two-hour warrantless wiretapping, and even for fifteen- day surveillance without a warrant in case of a war declaration. Sen. Biden (D-DE) was one of the four Democratic candidates at the April 2007 debate to say he does not believe in the war on terror. He has argued that the phrase and the doctrine behind it are problematic. “Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. If we can’t even identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s difficult to see how we will win,” he said in 2006. Still, Biden strongly opposes permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. In August 2006, Biden sponsored an amendment, which passed, opposing any attempt to create permanent bases in Iraq. In early 2007, Biden cosponsored the Iraq War Policy Bill, which expressed disagreement with President Bush’s troop surge plan, though it did call for a continuation of military operations against al-Qaeda and other insurgents in Anbar province. That bill failed in the Senate. Biden also sponsored the Iraq War Policy resolution in January 2007. That measure expressed that “it is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating the United States military force presence in Iraq.” The resolution also failed in the Senate. Sen. Biden (D-DE) in general espouses free trade policies but has been a recent critic of Bush administration bilateral and regional agreements on opening markets. He voted against the creation of FTAs with Oman in 2006 and with Singapore and Chile in 2003. He also voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2005. All of those bills were passed in the Senate. Biden criticized CAFTA, as well as the Singapore and Chile bilateral deals because, he said, they lacked effective provisions to ensure enforcement of labor and environmental standards. Biden also voted against the Trade Act of 2002, which reauthorized the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), granting certain trade benefits to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for “hard-headed diplomacy” with Iran. Biden says he supports direct engagement with the country. He also has called for the implementation of “coordinated international sanctions” on Iran, adding “we should complement this pressure by presenting a detailed, positive vision for U.S.-Iran relations if Iran does the right thing.” Biden has spoken out forcefully about a possible war with Iran. "War with Iran is not just a bad option. It would be a disaster," he wrote in December 2007. Biden has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Bush if he starts a war with Iran without Congressional approval. The Bad: Sen. Biden (D-DE) advocates sending U.S. troops to Darfur. He says 2,500 U.S. troops would likely be sufficient to stem the violence. In July 2007, he introduced a resolution with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping mission to Darfur. That resolution passed unanimously. Biden voted to confirm Michael Hayden as CIA director, despite Hayden’s role in administering the NSA wiretapping program. He did not always object to the idea of a war on terror. In 2002, Biden wrote in The Hill that the goal of the war on terror should be “to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the means to make them.” Sen. Biden (D-DE) is a self-described Zionist. Biden believes the United States should maintain extremely close ties with Israel, because in his experience, the Middle East has only progressed when “the Arab nations have known that there is no daylight between us and Israel,” as he said in a March 2007 interview with Forward. Biden dismissed the Iraq Study Group’s claims that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is related to the problems of the Iraq War, saying on Shalom TV in March 2007 that Israel’s behavior has “nothing to do” with Iraq. Biden cosponsored the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. That act, which passed, expressed U.S. support for a two-state solution. It also deemed the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organization and cut off all U.S. funding until it renounces terrorism, acknowledges Israel’s right to exist, and holds up its former agreements with Israel. He has regularly supported military and financial aid packages to Israel throughout his long career on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman. Sen. Biden (D-DE) has supported the U.S. policy of economic embargo and now calls for the development of a strategy for democratization in a post-Castro Cuba. In a CNN interview in 2006, Biden said, “We should be putting together a plan as to how we are going to play a positive role in moving that country, after the Castros are gone, to—more toward democratization and liberalization in their society.” In 1996, Biden voted for the Helms-Burton Act, also known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act. That act, which was passed, sought more stringent international sanctions against the Castro government. In 2000, Biden voted for the U.S.-China Trade Relations Act, which normalized trade relations with China. Although Sen. Biden (D-DE) initially supported the war in 2002, he has become one of its fiercest critics in the Senate. With Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden proposed a five-point plan (PDF) for the future of Iraq. The plan calls for a federalized Iraq with three regional governments (Kurd, Sunni Arab, and Shiite Arab) and a centralized government for management of “truly common interests” like oil and border defense. The plan also advocates a “regional non- aggression pact” and a redeployment of U.S. troops by the end of 2007. Biden says that a “small residual force” of U.S. troops should remain in the region even after that redeployment. In 1999, Biden voted in favor of the Africa Free Trade bill, which authorized a “new trade and investment policy for sub-Sahara Africa” and the granting of trade benefits to Caribbean countries. Through that bill, the U.S. tied trade benefits for sub-Saharan African countries to those countries’ free market and democratic policies. Biden also voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. Sen. Biden (D-DE) has been a prominent voice calling for legislation to stop climate change. In February 2007, after the release of the IPCC report, Biden urged fellow lawmakers and President Bush to take action, saying, “We have wasted the past six years on the sidelines of international negotiations and our leadership is needed to produce a global solution.” Biden cosponsored the Clean Power Act of 2005, a bill which would have implemented a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions had it become law. With Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), Biden has proposed two Senate resolutions on climate change. They put forward the Lugar-Biden Climate Change Resolution (PDF), passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May 2006. More recently, Biden and Lugar proposed Senate Resolution 30, which calls for the United States to comply with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and to establish a “bipartisan Senate observer group” to monitor international climate change negotiations. In November 2007, Biden said as president, he would increase humanitarian aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year, triple what it is now (NPR). He advocates tying non-security aid to Pakistan to “progress in developing democratic institutions and meeting good-governance norms.” Before Bhutto’s assassination, Biden said he would reexamine “big-ticket weapons systems” in U.S. military aid to Pakistan, including F-16 jets and P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft, if Musharraf did not “restore his nation to the democratic path.” Biden cosponsored a resolution condemning Musharraf’s imposition of a state of emergency, and calling on Musharraf to relinquish his military post, which he later did. Biden said in a November 2007 speech that increasing U.S. resources in Afghanistan “would embolden Pakistan’s government to take a harder line on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.” The Ugly: In 1999, Biden and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cosponsored a bill to authorize the president to use “all necessary force” in the Kosovo conflict. In 2003, Biden voted in favor of the appropriation of $87 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden, who sits on the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, has said the Department of Homeland Security has inadequately responded to the country’s security challenges. If elected president, he says he would create a Homeland Security and Public Safety Trust Fund “to implement the 9/11 Commission recommendations and invest in law enforcement." He wants an additional $10 billion a year for the next five years to be allocated to homeland security, raised by increasing taxes on the very wealthy. This would be used to fund the hiring of an additional 1,000 FBI agents and 50,000 police officers, among other items. In 2006, Biden voted against making FEMA independent from the DHS. Biden voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act in 2001 and voted to adopt a conference report to reauthorize it in 2006. In 2005, Biden voted for the Homeland Security Grant Program Amendment, which restored $565 million in cuts to first-responder programs. That amendment passed. He also voted for the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, which would create a National Intelligence Authority (NIA) that would serve to facilitate U.S. intelligence activity. That act would also create a National Counterterrorism Center.
Poster Comment: Obama could have done alot worse than Biden. Biden's got some good points, along with some very bad ones. But Biden's mixed bag is certainly better than neoconish blackholes like Evan Bayh or Chet Edwards.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#2. To: Arator (#0)
Americans have a false choices. We can do no worse. Choosing the hood color of our executioner is the sport at hand.
#6. To: nikki (#2)
Our "choice" with the establishment is whether we prefer death by firing squad or lethal injection. It doesn't make a lot of difference either way and the candidates they foist off on us are two wings of the same evil bird of prey.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestObama could have done alot worse than Biden.
Replies to Comment # 2. Americans have a false choices. We can do no worse. Choosing the hood color of our executioner is the sport at hand.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 2.