Joe Biden on Iraq War: "It's Time to Start to Tell the Truth"

In Monday's CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate, Senator Joe Biden outlined his thoughts regarding the United States' withdrawal from Iraq. The debate allowed Americans to submit their questions to the candidates via YouTube. Questions were asked on a variety of topics, including taxes, diplomatic issues, and the Iraq War.

In one of the night's 39 video questions, Barry Mitchell of Philadelphia asked the candidates: "How do we pull out now ... The government's shaky; bombs daily. Don't you think if we pulled out now that would open it up for Iran and Syria, God knows who -- Russia -- how do we pull out now? And isn't it our responsibility to get these people up on their feet?"

When prompted by debate commentator Anderson Cooper to answer Mitchell's question, Biden stated: "Anderson, you've been there. You know we can't just pull out now. Let's get something straight. It's time to start to tell the truth. The truth of the matter is: If we started today, it would take one year, one year to get 160,000 troops physically out of Iraq, logistically. That's number one."

Biden continued: "Number two, you cannot pull out of Iraq without the follow-on that's been projected here, unless you have a political solution. I'm the only one that's offered a political solution. And it literally means separate the parties; give them jurisdiction in their own areas; have a decentralized government, a federal system. No central government will work."

In discussing the logistics of a U.S. withdraw from Iraq, Biden also brought up the fact that many non-military United States civilians are now working and living in Iraq and the military would be responsible for helping these American citizens to leave Iraq.

In CNN post-debate analysis, political experts Bill Schneider, Leslie Sanchez, and Bill Press agreed that, of all the Democratic presidential candidates, Biden had the best knowledge of the issues during the debate. Schneider said of Biden: "when he talked about military matters and foreign affairs, you could hear his deep knowledge and experience." CNN users agreed, with 43% of voters stating that Biden seemed to know the most about the issues. Schneider and 21% of CNN users felt that Biden had the "best response to user generated content" with his comment that a man who referred to his gun as his baby "needs help."

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/23/debate.transcript/index.html