Joe Biden, the power player, backs Afghanistan escalation
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bFresh from being crowned a significant power player, Vice President Joe Biden took to the airways this morning to tout the Obama administration’s new policy on Afghanistan.
While top administration and military officials were hitting the Hill to testify before Congress, Biden was in a special role. Throughout the three-month review process, Biden, former head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was generally portrayed as one of the more dovish of President Obama’s advisors, pushing for fewer troops in Afghanistan and a greater emphasis on Al Qaeda, now based in Pakistan.
This morning, Biden put all of that behind him.
“I’ve never publicly said what my position is because I reserve that for the president,” Biden said. “But I was skeptical of taking our eye off the ball, the ball is Al Qaeda,” the vice president acknowledged. “That’s the reason we’re there. They are in Pakistan, the Taliban leadership is in Pakistan. And I wanted to make sure the focus stayed on those two elements of our concern and didn’t sort of morph into a nation-building exercise that would tie us down for 10 years and in fact not be of any assistance in meeting what is the real threat to the U.S. — that is Al Qaeda, and the most extreme forces that are in Pakistan and wanting to topple Pakistan.”
In announcing his policy, Obama coupled sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan with setting a time frame for the beginning of their withdrawal in July 2011. He also argued that Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had to clean up corruption and fraud to gain acceptance with his people and with international partners.
Biden emphasized those points today, speaking of the withdrawal timetable.
“To be completely blunt with you, it probably makes it more palatable (to liberal domestic critics), but that’s not the purpose,’ Biden said the July 2011 date. Speaking on the CBS ‘Early Show,” Biden added: “The purpose is to make it clear to Karzai and his government that up until now has been unwilling to step up to the ball, ‘Fellas, you’ve got to step up to the ball.’ ”
Obama has praised Biden for his foreign policy experience and has made him the lead person in dealing with federal funds to stimulate the economy. The New York Times Magazine recently portrayed him as a major player and a powerful vice president, ranking him just behind his predecessor, Dick Cheney.
-- Michael Muskal
