Here are Senator Biden’s main positions on the world’s hot spots:
IRAQ
Unlike Barack Obama, who opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning – but was not in the Senate at the time of the vote – Senator Biden voted in favour of an October 2002 resolution authorising President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq.
Senator Biden however became a fierce critic of Mr Bush’s Iraq policy, saying that while the United States should eliminate Saddam Hussein, a unilateral invasion was “the worst option”.
In 2006 he wrote that a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq was desirable by 2008, a position close to that of Senator Obama, who supports a withdrawal over 16 months starting the day he takes office.
In a 2007 interview with The Politico, Senator Biden said he regretted voting for the war.
He fiercely opposed the so-called “surge” of US troops to Iraq that Mr Bush ordered in early 2007.
Senator Biden has proposed a plan to end the conflict by dividing Iraq into three largely autonomous ethnic regions – a southern Shiite region, a western Sunni region, and a northern Kurdish region – held together by a central government in Baghdad with limited powers.
AFGHANISTAN and PAKISTAN
Like Senator Obama, Senator Biden believes that the “real central front in the war on terrorism” is not Iraq, “but rather the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan”.
“If we should have had a surge anywhere, it is Afghanistan,” Senator Biden said in a recent opinion article in the New York Times, because “Afghanistan’s fate is directly tied to Pakistan’s future and America’s security”.
“The recent Pakistani elections gave the moderate majority its voice back,” Senator Biden wrote. “To demonstrate to its people that we care about their needs, not just our own, we must triple assistance for schools, roads and clinics, sustain it for a decade, and demand accountability for the military aid we provide.”
Senator Biden also called for Mr Bush to fulfill a pledge for a plan for Afghanistan along the lines of the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
IRAN
Also like Senator Obama, Senator Biden supports direct talks with Iran.
“I believe the United States should agree to directly engage Iran, first in the context of the ‘P-5 plus 1’, and ultimately country-to-country, just as we did with North Korea,” Senator Biden said in an early July press statement.
The ‘P-5 plus 1’ refers to the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.
“The net effect of demanding preconditions that Iran rejects is this: We get no results and Iran gets closer to the bomb,” he said.
MIDDLE EAST
Senator Biden is a strong supporter of Israel.
“I am a Zionist,” he said in a March 2007 interview with the US-based Jewish cable television network Shalom TV. “You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”
He described Israel as “the single greatest strength America has in the Middle East”.
He travelled with Senator Obama to Israel in late July, when Senator Obama promised strong support for Israel against the threat from Iran, and said he would strongly support the Mid-East peace process soon after he takes office.
GEORGIA and RUSSIA
Senator Biden travelled to crisis-plagued Georgia last weekend on a fact-finding mission.
“I am going to Georgia this weekend to get the facts first-hand and to show my support for Georgia’s people and its democratically-elected government,” Senator Biden said before his trip.
In mid-August, following the Russian military incursion into Georgia, Senator Biden said: “I have long sought to help Russia realise its extraordinary potential as a force for progress in the international community, and have supported legislative efforts intended to forge a more constructive relationship with the Kremlin.”
However, Russia’s actions “will have consequences” on its ties to Washington, he said.
“Russia’s failure to keep its word and withdraw troops from Georgia risks the country’s standing as part of the international community.”
Source: www.news.com.au, August 24, 2008
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