Predictable .. and I expect worse to come ...
Do Petraeus and Crocker have to go through this in the Senate?
That’s where it’ll get really dicey and steamy. Imagine Kennedy, Clinton, Boxer, UGH! And, Biden .. after his rancorous statements while IN Iraq .. being the interrogators.
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070906/usa/iraq_unrest_anbar_3
(Biden) “told the meeting in Anbar province: “Unity of Iraq is an Iraqi problem. America wants you to succeed and we will do whatever we can to enable you to succeed.”
Speaking at a one-day forum in Ramadi, capital of the province, just days after US President George W. Bush had stopped in the region to endorse peace initiatives, Biden said Iraq’s future was in their hands.
“Only you can determine the future. It’s encouraging to see central government assisting you in Anbar. In America we are waiting to see how extensive that cooperation will be,” Biden said.
“If it is (extensive) you can count on America to stay, if it is not, we can say goodbye now.
“There are difficulties but if you continue (to make progress) we will also send you our sons and daughters to shed their blood with you, for you. But if you decide that you cannot live together let us know. My son, who is a captain in the army, can stay home.”
(Note: he’s not in a war zone at this time.)
and
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070910/news_1n10biden.html
“I really respect him (Petraeus), and I think he’s dead flat wrong,” Biden said.
Biden contended that Bush’s main strategy was to buy time and extend the troop presence in Iraq long enough to push the burden onto the next president, who takes office in January 2009, to fix the sectarian strife.
“This president has no plan – how to win and/or how to leave,” Biden said.
Stressing that a political solution was the key, he said, “I will insist on a firm beginning to withdraw the troops and I will insist on a target date to get American combat forces out,” except for those necessary to protect U.S. civilians and fight al-Qaeda.”
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and, more of the same, with the additional demoralizing comments:
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http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6824963?source=rss
Looking to next week’s congressional hearings on Iraq, Biden warned a group of Sunni sheiks and top government leaders of consequences if they failed to reconcile relations among Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis: “In America, we’re waiting to see how extensive that cooperation will be. If it is extensive, you can count on America to stay. If it is not, we can say goodbye now.”
Biden has supported troop reductions in Iraq and advocated partition of the country.
Acknowledging the difficulty of building a democracy from scratch, Biden told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his two vice presidents that it took America’s founding fathers 13 years to agree on a final draft of the Constitution.
“Maybe you’ll do better than we did,” said Biden, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “But, respectfully, I doubt it.”
I dunno... I always like seeing Biden get bitch-slapped down and there's nothing more entertaining than a late-afternoon hearing and watching Ted Kennedy start to get the alcoholic shakes.
I hope Biden raises the partitioning of Iraq solution he is so fond of. Crocker will shoot him out of the water.
I wonder if sKerry can even look Petraeus in the eye?
I doubt it.
yes tomorrow they are in the Senate.
What gripes me is when Biden, Swimmer, Schumer (ugh!!). INTENTIONALLY INTERRUPT during the answer of a US General.
None of them are fit to wipe Petraus’ boots.
Biden is just sore that his Iraq breakup plan has been proven wrong by history and is wholly unpopular with Iraqis.