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30 June 2003

Struggle for a Democratic Iraq May Be Long and Costly, Biden Says

(Senator says American people need to be told task's magnitude) (520)
By Steve La Rocque
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee says the American people do not fully realize the extent of
the task of bringing stability to Iraq.
In a June 27 speech, Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat of Delaware),
after a trip to Iraq, said he had not found "one reasonable person who
suggests that the United States will not be heavily involved," even
after a transition to a democratic Iraqi government, for at least
three to five years.
"If anybody thinks it is less than that, they are kidding themselves,"
said Biden, " If it is less than that, it will mean we will lose the
peace."
There is still a war going on in Iraq, Biden told colleagues.
"It is more like a guerrilla war but there is a war," he said.
"Our young men and women are being targeted not by some random group
of Islamists who are angry but by professionals, the leftover
fedayeen, the Republican Guard," said Biden.
In the Senate, everyone knows, "whether we say another year or 10,
whether it is 75,000 troops or 160,000, whether it is $1 billion or
$20 billion or $40 billion, we all know it is a lot more than any of
us are telling the American people," Biden said
"It was a worthy goal to take down Saddam Hussein," Biden said.
The Iraqi dictator, he added, was a danger to his own people, killing
at least 300,000 of them.
"Mass graves abound," Biden said, "We did a worthy and noble thing."
But now, he added, the United States "must internationalize" its
effort to stabilize Iraq and bring democracy to that country.
"We must level with the American people," Biden said.
"It is time, as one of my Republican colleagues said, to tell the
truth," Biden said, "I am suggesting the American people do not have
any idea what we have signed them on to."
"We had better tell them," he added.
Biden, who was first elected to the Senate in 1972, has in the past
chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is often looked to
as the Democratic Party's chief spokesman on national security and
foreign policy issues.
Biden also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he is the
third ranking Democrat on the committee.
The Delaware Democrat is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on
Crime, Corrections, and Victims' Rights, and serves as well on the
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.
He is a member of the Senate Democratic Steering and Coordination
Committee, and is a Co-Chairman on the Congressional Caucus on
International Narcotics Control, as well as the Co-Chairman of the
Senate NATO Observer Group, the Co-Chairman of the Senate National
Security Working Group, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Delegation to
the North Atlantic Assembly, and one of two U.S. Congressional
Representatives to the United Nations.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)