Sens Biden & Kerry, 9/25/07

[TayTay]

Sen. Kerry on http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8143506">why he decided to support Sen. Biden's non-binding Senate amendment support a soft partition of Iraq

I have resisted what has previously been put forward as a partition plan because I don't think the United States of America can just walk in and ``partition.'' I think that would, in fact, smack of precisely part of the ingredients that have created the problem we inherited. That is what Winston Churchill and the British did shortly after the turn of the last century. The result was that they drew a lot of artificial lines between different people and created a state that never existed before,
and we are inheriting some of the long-term impact and realities of those decisions. So we cannot come in and just partition it, which is why for over 3 years or more I have been pushing for a standing conference, a summit, a peace conference which brings the permanent five and the neighbors and the Iraqi factions that are struggling all to the table simultaneously to work through diplomacy in order to arrive at an understanding of how they can go forward.

Diplomacy has always been the key to trying to find a political settlement in Iraq. It has been absent. One of the reasons I am now a cosponsor of this different amendment by Senator Biden and others is that it does not specifically seek to partition. Not for the long term, certainly, and not even in the short term does it seek to partition. What it seeks to do is honor what is already in the Iraqi Constitution as well as recognize the realities that have developed on the ground.

Some 2 million-plus people have been displaced out of the country, some 1.1 million people are displaced within the country, and there has been an ethnic cleansing taking place over the course of the last few years that has resulted, for instance, in the city of Baghdad transitioning from a city that at the beginning of the war was 65 percent Sunni to now it is 75 percent Shia, and the south is almost exclusively Shia, and the Sunni triangle is the Sunni triangle, with some exceptions, obviously.
We know there are intermarriages. There are some pockets of places where there are still larger populations of either Sunni or Shia living in a larger either Sunni or Shia surrounded area.

But the bottom line is this: There has been a huge shifting of populations according to ethnic lines that has taken place. There also is an awareness that there is fundamentally a failed government, almost failed state. Everyone, from President Bush to Prime Minister Maliki to General Petraeus, everybody involved with this at a decisionmaking level has acknowledged that there is no military solution, there is only a political solution. So if there is no military solution and there is only a political
solution, what is the political solution? Clearly, the political solution--because we have seen over the last 4 1/2 years it is not going to be immediately, maybe down the road but not immediately--to have a strong central functioning government that somehow has the ability to work through the differences of Shia and Sunni divisions with a police that is dysfunctional and an army that is largely Shia.

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/congress/?q=node/77531&id=8143522">Sen Biden on what this support from Sen Kerry meant:

But before the Senator from Massachusetts leaves the floor, I wish to say to him--and I hope it will not in any way cause him any difficulty--he and I have been close friends for over 30 years, and I want him to know, and I want my colleagues to know, that much of what this amendment we are hopefully going to vote on is about is what the Senator and I have talked about for the last 4 years and that he has led on, including the international piece.

As a matter of fact, he led on it from a different perspective, as a candidate, as well. So I wish to tell him how grateful I am for his joining in this amendment. Quite frankly, it is a big deal that he is, and it adds not only credibility to the amendment in terms of our colleagues, but it adds, quite frankly, an international credibility to it because an awful lot of people around the world look to my colleague for his insights into what we do about the most critical issue facing American
foreign policy today.

The truth is, in order for us to regain the kind of leadership in the world that I would argue we are lacking, we have to settle Iraq, and we cannot do it on our own. There is a need for the international community. Even if this answer is the perfect answer, it cannot be made in America any longer.

So I wish to thank my colleague and acknowledge that I have learned from him, and I wish to thank him for--and I know we use the phrase very blithely around here--his leadership. But I mean that. I wish to thank him for his leadership. He has been absolutely totally consistent on this point from before the time we actually used force in Iraq until today. So I want the record to reflect that.

These Senators are long-time friends and deeply respect each other's opinions. They have differences based on the merits and obviously each listens to the other when there is a difference of opinion because they learn from these differences.

I like and respect Sen. Biden. He is a great Democrat and a very knowledgeable US Senator who will be a great VP for this Country. I know that Sen. Kerry wishes the best for him.

[beachmom]

1. Thanks for posting, Tay. Wise words. nt

[ProSense]

2. Two of the best. Thanks for posting. n/t

[karynnj]

3. thanks, Tay

I love one of your summary sentences -
"These Senators are long-time friends and deeply respect each other's opinions. They have differences based on the merits and obviously each listens to the other when there is a difference of opinion because they learn from these differences."

I far prefer the foreign policy mind set that Kerry's opinion stemmed from to Biden's - but Biden's statement after he accepted Kerry's concerns was generous. I think it was extremely important that Kerry had the strength of character to withhold his support until that change was made - even though Biden was a friend and the chair of the committee and because it was clear that this resolution was there (like his 2006 summit resolution) as a statement of what Bush should do as opposed to something that would be immediately implemented. I hope that Biden in making those changes grasped some of Kerry's more multicultural mindset.

If Kerry is SFRC chair, it may signal how he would act when he disagrees with Biden or Obama. Kerry never attacked Biden's plan - when asked about it on Blitzer's show he described it as "thoughtful", but then explained what kept him from supporting it. He made a case for the changes needed. Nothing was personal - it was just issues. In this instance, Biden changed to Kerry's opinion - probably because he came to see merit it in it.

I certainly agree with you on the last statement - we need a very successful administration.

[YvonneCa]

4. Isn't this a great place to be? Every now and then...

...I pause to remember the absolutely HORRENDOUS position we Democrats were in in late November 2004. That Thanksgiving, I was obviously very thankful for the many good things in my personal life...but I had a hard time feeling gratitude for where our country was. What was not yet clear to a majority of the country...the extent to which our country was off-track...was so clear to me (and thankfully, to all of you here :) ).

Now, four long years later, just look where we are! As Democrats, we have so many GREAT choices in front of us that we can hardly contain ourselves. :7 The same is true for Senator Kerry. Isn't that amazing?

Our new leaders, Obama and Biden, are going to be such a refreshing change! And Senator Kerry...wherever he ends up...will be that same, wonderful, patriot. He'll be fighting hard for what is right. The difference is, now he won't be fighting against the tide. How wonderful is that ?:patriot: