Senator Biden is Interviewed on CNN Situation Room
February 23, 2007
Please note that this is a partial transcript.
BLITZER: Joining us now from his home state of Delaware, thechairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and Democraticpresidential candidate, Joe Biden.
Mr. Chairman, thanks very much for coming in.
BIDEN: Happy to be with you, Wolf.
BLITZER: What makes you think that you have the 60 votesnecessary to pass a new resolution, reauthorizing the military effortsin Iraq, when you couldn't get a non-binding resolution passed in twoearlier attempts?
BIDEN: Well, I don't start off that way. I start off, Wolf,with what is the right thing to do? And the president's authority,the way he is using it, he's misusing it. The rationale for him beingin Iraq no longer exists. We went there, gave him authority to takeout weapons of mass destructions, which never existed, take downSaddam, who is dead, and force compliance with the UN resolutions thatare already forced.And now we have this president's policy driving us into a boxcanyon. We got to redefine the mission. It's a process. We got tobang it away. Carl Levin and I are working hard with our leadershipto try to make this case. We may not get it initially, but we willeventually.
BLITZER: Here is what the White House spokesman said earliertoday on this new effort that you and your colleagues are coming upwith. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY FRATTO, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: The war authorization spoketo, and certainly envisioned, subsequent UN Security Councilresolutions, and the authorization is very clear, in that thepresident has the authority to strictly enforce UN Security Councilresolutions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: He is the commander-in-chief; the constitution giveshim that ability to conduct war.
BIDEN: It does, only if the Congress gave him the authority inthe first place. We are repealing the initial authority. And by theway, the United States Constitution cannot be trumped by the United Nations. It cannot be trumped by it. The implementation act of theUnited Nations treaty, when we passed it, said, it depends upon theCongress' authority. So the fact of the matter is, this isconstitutionally permissible.The bottom line here is, Wolf, this president is taking us in themidst of a civil war, of a self-sustaining cycle of sectarian violenceand revenge, which, even if we had a hundred thousand troops, wecouldn't stop. We should define the mission: protect the borders;train Iraqi army; deny al Qaeda occupation of territory like they didin Afghanistan, and protect our troops. Not get in the middle of acivil war they couldn't solve even if we wanted to.
BLITZER: Have you done any check to see if there is an historicprecedent whereby the Congress has authorized the president to useforce in one specific engagement and then withdrawn thatauthorization?
BIDEN: To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been one, butthere has never been a president as irresponsible in the use of thatforce as this president has been. So this is a new precedent.
BLITZER: Do you think this is the worst foreign policy blunderof any U.S. president? Because that's what Harry Reid told me lastweekend.
BIDEN: I believe it is. I believe -- look, there's been moreconsequential things have happened, but they haven't been blunders.World War I, World War II, the Korean War -- they have cost a greatdeal more and more blood and treasure shed. But there has not been aforeign policy initiative has done more damage, isolated the UnitedStates more from the rest of the world, put us in a position wherethere is no real good solution left, and continued to be pursued by apresident who has no notion of how this is going to end.
BLITZER: So this is a worse blunder than Vietnam?
BIDEN: I think it is a worst blunder than Vietnam in the sensethat the consequences for us not getting it right in Iraq are going tostick with us for a generation, as opposed to in Vietnam, we all knewwhen we got out of Vietnam, we would have suffered great loss, butthere wasn't another shoe to fall. It wasn't like you're, all of asudden, going to have Russia controlling the Straits of Hormuz or thatyou're going to have China controlling Vietnam or we're going to haveanother war.But look what happens here. If we don't get it right here, whathappens if this civil war metastasizes into a regional war? We mayend up in a war with Iran. We may find there's a whole regional warthat affects our entire future. This is much more consequential inthat sense.
BLITZER: If it's that big of a deal, why not do what Congressclearly has the authority to and namely use the power of the purse andcut the funding? You're going to have an opportunity. There is ahundred billion dollar supplemental request that the president ismaking for emergency funding. You could cut the money if you want.
BIDEN: Well, we could cut the money, but it doesn't solve ourproblem. Most of us still believe there is a need -- I don't know ofa single proposal out there that says bring all of the troops homeright away, without damage occurring. I don't know anybody who says you're not going to to have to leave some troops behind as anoverhorizon force, from Jack Murtha to the Baker Commission to theBiden/Gelb Plan.And so it gets very much more difficult to parse it out that way.The clearest way to do is to say, Mr. President, here is your mission.Here's the authority you have. The mission you have is to do thefollowing four things. You don't have authority to do other things.That's the clearest way to do it, Wolf.
