Biden's Flawed Foreign Policy Judgements
Peter Wehner, Ethics and Public Policy Center | September 4, 2008
McCain’s vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, is accused of lacking experience in security and foreign policy issues. ++ She is contrasted to Obama’s running mate, Joseph Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. ++ His experience, however, doesn’t translate into expertise: during his 35 years in the Senate Biden has shown that his judgement in national security affairs is poor, e.g., he opposed modernization of US nuclear forces. ++ Palin’s little experience is better than Biden’s record of mistakes and misguided assumptions
Sat, Sep 6th 2008, 08:26
Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Silver Contributor (74)
Wehner faults Biden for opposing aid to the South Vietnamese government in its war against North Vietnam and implies that Biden was part of Congressional attempts to shut down the Vietnam war by withholding funds.
Wehner faults Biden for opposing Reagan’s funding of the Contras, for opposing Reagan’s efforts to give military aid to the government of El Salvador.
Biden is faulted for opposing Reagan’s “Star Wars” and other missile defense initiatives, and for supporting our continued adherence to the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty after the demise of the USSR.
He is faulted for opposing the first Gulf War.
He is faulted for advocating the partition of Iraq, and for opposing the surge. Wehner asserts that without the surge the Iraq war would have been lost -- assuming that it will be won and that the surge is the only factor involved in recent improvements.
One question, which should be easy to research, is whether Wehner’s critique is factually correct. The other thing to note is that Wehner would appear to have a philosophical position favoring authoritarian rulers beholden to the U.S., and favoring defense policies that assume a positive trade-off for moves that threaten Russia.