I wrote last night about Biden’s politically-driven foreign policies over the years, as I was taken by surprise to hear him blatantly distort his philosophy on national security issues over the years. There were plenty of other false statements Biden made, most of which will be ignored by the MSM, but Jim Geraghty has found over 20 Biden errors thus far.
The worst Biden error last night was his statement about Lebanon:
BIDEN: Gwen, no one in the United States Senate has been a better friend to Israel than Joe Biden. I would have never, ever joined this ticket were I not absolutely sure Barack Obama shared my passion. But you asked a question about whether or not this administration’s policy had made sense or something to that effect. It has been an abject failure, this administration’s policy. In fairness to Secretary Rice, she’s trying to turn it around now in the seventh or eighth year.
Here’s what the president said when we said no. He insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, “Big mistake. Hamas will win. You’ll legitimize them.” What happened? Hamas won. When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, “Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.”
Now what’s happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel. The fact of the matter is, the policy of this administration has been an abject failure. And speaking of freedom being on the march, the only thing on the march is Iran. It’s closer to a bomb. Its proxies now have a major stake in Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip with Hamas.
We will change this policy with thoughtful, real, live diplomacy that understands that you must back Israel in letting them negotiate, support their negotiation, and stand with them, not insist on policies like this administration has.
Ed Morrissey picked up on this at Hot Air, and he has linked to a few explanations for what really happened in Lebanon. Biden’s account begs to question when Biden and Obama ever called for NATO troops to go into Lebanon, especially now that we’ve examined how Biden avoids intervention when a Republican President is in office. Speaking of using NATO troops, we might be more inclined to believe Obama called for any such usage if he had actually held a meeting for his Foreign Relations subcommittee on European Affairs, which has influence on NATO.
As Ed asks, how can anyone trust Obama on issues like this when he defers to Biden on foreign policy questions, as he did in the first debate, and Biden himself seems to have no clue what he’s talking about?
FOLLOW UP: People are now noting that Hezbollah never left Lebanon, and therefore Biden’s reference to a vacuum in Lebanon is not real, nor was there any discussion to use NATO troops in such a situation. Biden’s comments are wrong for several reasons, and the MSM is once again giving him a free pass. What would be the media’s reaction if Sarah Palin had made those comments?
