Biden calls Bush irresponsible and outrageous on Iran

[jillan]

In October, when President Bush raised the specter of World War III with Iran because of its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, he knew that our own intelligence community had concluded months earlier that Iran had halted its weapons program in 2003.

This is as outrageous as it is irresponsible. It's exactly what he did in the run up to the war in Iraq in consistently exaggerating intelligence suggesting that Iraq had WMD while failing to tell the American people about intelligence concluding that it did not.

For many reasons, war with Iran is not just a bad option, it would be a disaster. So I want to be crystal clear on this: if the President takes us to war with Iran without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment.

The President's actions further undermine America's credibility around the world -- and the government's credibility here at home -- at a time when that credibility is at an all time low. And it injects more tension and instability into the Middle East at a time when we should be doing everything in our power to prevent that region from spiraling out of control.

Yesterday I gave a major address in Iowa outlining a plan to keep Iran from producing the material that could one day be used for a bomb -- without using force. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read that plan on my website:

Joebiden.com

[1corona4u]

1. GO JOE!!

[youthere]

2. Damn straight.

[Eurobabe]

3. Damn straight!

Biden was right. Bush is a dangerous incompetent fool that needs to be transported to the Hague, post haste.

[1corona4u]

4. As usual....

he's so right all the time, it's almost predictable, LOL...

[Eurobabe]

5. Bbbbut, he's a racist and says inappropriate things

and he plagarizes.

:sarcasm:

Iowa will wake up to Biden, mark my words. But I think Edwards might pull this one off, JRE or BO. Not Hillary. Biden could finish 3rd or 4th.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. Don't forget the hair plugs!!!111!!1

OMG, can you even imagine a president who got hair plugs?

[Eurobabe]

7. Are you series?

And don't forget he's Catholic. :eyes:

[murbley40]

16. and he has a brain and uses it!

[Froward69]

8. Hair plugs???

why don't ya just come out and say it... HE's a white guy! the same hateful rules apply.

[1corona4u]

11. I can think of several that needed them...LOL...here's just one...

[saltpoint]

9. The question on Biden is whether there are enough hours between now and

January 3rd for voters to listen.

Because there isn't a damn thing wrong with his qualifications.

[1corona4u]

12. But, even if they don't by the 3rd...

he has to press on...this is not over with Bush, not by a longshot....

[saltpoint]

14. If he has the funds, I imagine he will, at least through the early primaries.

And that's a good thing. We want intelligent people in the race for as long as humanly possible.

[1corona4u]

15. Which, I think is why he filed for public financing

a month or so ago...I think if he comes in 3rd, or even close to 3rd, like within a few thousand/hundred votes, he will be in the game...

[1corona4u]

10. The transcript is up from Hardball...

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, “HARDBALL”: We're going to have Joe Biden joining us right now. Here he is, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Biden, I know you've been the foreign affairs expert for the Democratic Party. Were you snowed?

Were you shocked to hear we do not face a weapons system under production in Iran?

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN, D-DEL., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. I never believed we were. And I said it. I've been trying to engage Iran way back five years ago with Dick Lugar and others, trying to engage them.

This isn't about curiosity, it's about credibility. This administration has damaged us to a degree that no other administration has in American history. We have no credibility, Chris. It's amazing, absolutely amazing to me. Were it not for the fact, your point about it making it virtually impossible for them to go to war now, were it not for that silver lining, which is immense, this is unconscionable. It's unconscionable.

MATTHEWS: What did you think about the policy and how it's changed? You're a critic, as well as a candidate.

The policy of this administration was to scare the bejesus out of everybody in the world that we were going to face a World War III — those are the president's phrases there ... World War III. And now, what do you think the policy is now? Despite what he said today at the press conference, what is our policy now, do you think?

BIDEN: The policy's no different now. The rhetoric is going to change. The policy's no different. I made a major speech yesterday on Iran. I've laid out in detail over the last five years exactly what we should be doing with Iran, which is diametrically opposed to everything this president is doing.

Now look what's happened, Chris. In terms of our allies being willing to stay with us on other really critical issues, it's going to be virtually impossible. The Russians are running around the world, touting the fact that now it's proven that they've been right and we've been wrong. Now it undercuts our ability to deal with the real problem.


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The real problem is their continued effort to deal with Hezbollah and Hamas, their continued effort to deal with trying to find — being able to produce highly enriched uranium. That's real. That's real. And now what's happened?

Secondly, what have we done? We have added to the urban legend in the streets of all the Muslim capitals in the world that this is a war against Islam. We have made it more difficult for every moderate Muslim leader, from Karzai on, to be able to deal directly with us. This is incredibly devastating to our interests in the Middle East, from Iraq through Pakistan, as well as our credibility around the world. It is going to cost us in a way that no one's calculating it.

The good news is it makes it harder for these cowboys to go to war.

The bad news is we have been further damaged, and that hurts America's interests in a big way.

MATTHEWS: Well, this propaganda war that's been fought now for years now, their phrases like “weapons of mass destruction” that you and I never heard of growing up, “regime change,” all the rest of it, “homeland,” all the rest of the new language we've learned from this crowd that came in a few years ago, around the late '90s they started pushing this — if their motive is not to find weapons of mass destruction, which don't seem to materialize when they're supposed to in either Iraq or the Iranian case, what is the grand motive for war?

Why did we invade Iraq? Why were we threatening World War III with Iran? Why did this administration, Cheney and the president, keep pushing the war? Why do they always want to fight or scare somebody? What's it about, if it's not weapons?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22104596/

[PatSeg]

13. It was a good interview

I wish Matthews had Biden on more often. He is one guest that Matthews doesn't interrupt and he treats him with respect.