Even though former Vice President Joe Biden’s favorability has declined following the first Democratic debate, he remains largely considered the frontrunner by many mainstream media outlets and pundits for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Early in the first debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned how Biden had supported the Iraq War and that he had voted against it. Biden responded that he now wanted to see the U.S. out of Afghanistan. Yet Biden’s role was more sinister than that.
In 2002, Biden was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Following 9/11, he conducted the “Hearings to Examine Threats, Responses and Regional Considerations Surrounding Iraq” on July 31 and August 1, 2002.
At the time, Biden classified the meeting as secret and did not allow public review or attendance. The media largely did not cover this meeting. With the exception of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (a committee member), the people invited to attend and give a submission were not on record as being against the war. Notably absent from the hearing was Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq.
In September 2002, Biden spoke before the Senate and made a case for war against Iraq. He followed that with a nearly one-hour Senate discourse supporting the war on October 9, 2002. It was Biden’s inference in this Senate presentation that suggested Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat in mainstream discourse.
When the transcript of the September 2002 Senate meeting first became available, I downloaded it. As someone who had worked on weapons systems and had as high as a top-secret clearance, I had experience with infrared missiles, inertial reference navigation systems, global positioning systems and radar for use in both military vehicles and ground-firing howitzers, as well as conventional and nuclear missiles and bombs. I also had unrestricted access to the classified library of the U.S. Navy and knew of other proposals in the military by U.S. defense industries. I figured that if there were to be anyone qualified to assess a threat, I was certainly in the running.
So I downloaded the file in October 2002 and set about to read the 275-page document word by word. I easily spent a couple of weeks doing it. Review of the entire transcript revealed there was no real evidence whatsoever that Iraq was a threat to the U.S. or was in possession of WMDs. Shouldn’t we expect a reference to satellite data, perhaps? Or discussions about facilities that inspectors were being kept from? Or maybe special nuclear sensors that had tripped?
Nothing in the transcript provided any evidence that Iraq was a threat.
That's Joe Biden.
- .@JoeBiden needs to prove that he has learned from his disastrous decision to support going to war in Iraq. Biden should sign our Veterans’ pledge to #EndForeverWar, instead of choosing top advisors who helped start it.
- Biden [D-DE] fails fact check on Iraq troops https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/22/joe-bidens-claim-that-he-got-combat-troops-out-iraq/ …
- Biden: 'I Got 150,000 Troops Out of #Iraq.' WaPo Fact-Checker: 'Um, no.' #SalvadorRizzo #JoeBiden... http://iraq.trendolizer.com/2019/07/biden-i-got-150000-troops-out-of-iraq-wapo-fact-checker-um-no.html …
- No candidate is near flawless when it comes to foreign policy, but any candidate (like @JoeBiden) who voted for the Iraq war is one of several hundred people primarily responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis without cause. It should be disqualifying.
- They all know you voted for the Iraq war.
.@JoeBiden voted for the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, the repeal of Glass-Stegall*, wrote the 1994 crime bill, and opposes #MedicareForAll
*Biden is now crowing about how he and Obama instituted an utterly toothless piece of legislation to combat his earlier vote (Dodd-Frank?CPA)
Biden is a fraud...lived in a mansion next door to THE Duponts since th 1970s. his judgment has cost us at least $10trillion, ruinD lives in iraq and prisons, 2008 debacle. his kids werenT incarcerated for THEIR drug use. disqualifying for #DonorClassJoe
