Biden Forced to Play Defense In Wake of Soleimani Killing

Former Vice President, and current Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, suddenly finds himself — on the defensive after the killing of Iranian General Soleimani.

In the early hours after President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s top military official, the Democratic presidential field responded pretty much in unison, condemning the president’s actions, and saying that the move was a miscalculation that had the potential to destabilize the region further and put the lives of Americans and their allies at risk of deadly reprisal.

But, as the potential blowback against the United States became clearer in the days following the death of General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Quds Force and architect of Iran’s war against ISIS across the region, candidates began to divide themselves into two distinct camps: those who argue that only a steady, experienced hand can steady America’s increasingly erratic foreign policy, and those who point to the past two decades of U.S. foreign policy to show the need for drastic change.

That division is now largely aimed at Biden, whose admittedly long career, includes having gotten the US mired in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a former two-term vice president and a major figure in U.S. foreign policy during his decades in the Senate, Biden is particularly vulnerable to attacks on historic U.S. foreign policy as examples of “what not to do.”

“Age does not necessarily correlate with wisdom on foreign policy,” one foreign policy adviser to a “top-tier candidate” told The Daily Beast. “Over the course of years, and in some cases decades, there is a track record that is extensive—and in some cases it is consistent—in pointing to flaws of judgment, and perhaps even a worldview that is not necessarily well-suited to what is required of a commander in chief.”

As we teeter on once again getting involved in the Middle East, not surprisingly, the candidate throwing the most shade at Biden on foreign policy, is Bernie Sanders.

For years Sanders has touted his 2002 vote against authorizing the use of military force in Iraq. Even in the days before the strike that killed Soleimani, when foreign policy was still very much on the back burner for most presidential hopefuls, Sanders had described Biden’s support for the war as “a lot of baggage.”

“I was right about Vietnam. I was right about Iraq. I will do everything in my power to prevent a war with Iran,” Sanders tweeted on Friday morning, alongside a video in which he describes that war and the vote that authorized it as “the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of the United States.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, both of whom entered politics long after public opinion and political consensus turned against the invasion of Iraq, have been more implicit in their criticism, instead warning that Soleimani’s death risks an escalation of military tensions with Iran that could result in another “endless war”—like “the one Biden voted for.”

The Biden campaign, however, told The Daily Beast that they see the emergence of foreign policy matters as a central issue in campaign politics as a boon, rather than a burden.

“These events put into greater relief that we need a commander-in-chief who can, from the moment they’re sworn in—and without needing on the job training—start repairing the severe damage that Donald Trump has done on the world stage,” a campaign spokesperson told The Daily Beast.

On Friday, Biden’s response to a reporter’s inquiry about his role in the 2011 operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden prompted further questions about whether his foreign policy experience is a help or a hindrance. In an exchange with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, Biden said that he would be willing to use an airstrike to kill a terrorist leader, using the bin Laden operation as an example. When Doocy followed up by noting that Biden has previously said that he discouraged President Obama from authorizing the operation, Biden brusquely responded, “No, I didn’t. I didn’t.”

However, there are reports that Biden – some of out of his own mouth – that he had not backed the operation in a group meeting at the time.

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11 Thoughts to “Biden Forced to Play Defense In Wake of Soleimani Killing”

  1. LIAR!!!!!
    PELOSU sides with the Murderer?
    AMERICA IS WATCHING YOU DEMIs MAKE FOOLS OF YOURSELF!!!

  2. Joaquín Rodríguez

    Biden and the rest of Democrats candidates are lying constantly. Biden is better known because has been committed in too many decisions in his too long political career and his verbal incontinence. But the only exclusive theme is against Trump. What is the program for a thru new, original and distinctive government that can make the difference? Trump is succeeding in all his goals, and the political adversaries (actual enemies) are loosing credibility day after day. God Bless America and those who love our great homeland.

  3. I feel that Joe Biden is a bit of a not too bright person. If there are two choices, he always seems to make the wrong Choice. That has been true for his entire time in the Senate.He tried to destroy one of our finest Supreme Court Justices in the senate hearings..

  4. Michael Bee

    Go away Biden, Go far far away, Mr Biden, you are not a good representation of what America needs, you are nothing more than a straw puppet for the democratic left-over Obama Administration. An administration who paid our enemies to do the very thing that they are now doing, who back them with His policies like rules of engagement non-sense and a plane loaded with America tax-payers money sent to them to launder, so that a portion of it could come back to His pocket.

  5. Jim Looby

    What a joke. Laws are broken over and over again and nothing happens. Sure they have no problem locking someone up for some pot or shoplifting but these people can throw our Country under the bus to make a buck and then have the nerve to sue the DOJ and FBI ? They all need to go to prison or the gallows for treason. BIDEN , kerry, Obama , schiff, polosi Soros. ! Grow a pair DOJ ,FBI,DHS or are you part of this coup too ? Help your Country for God’s sake !

  6. Craig Michael Vandertie

    If they ruthlessly kill anymore United States citizens use the exact same tactics the zionists use at a distance use missiles to blast them back into the stone age.

    Better idea since the Iranians hate israelis more than United States citizens demand they turn Iran into a smoking pit of desolation they owe us a trillion times over factoring in all the financial charity we have provided them for 73 years.

  7. Lisa

    He just keeps lying and getting caught but idiots will still vote for him. You want a president who willlet the soldiers die and take money for their and their children’s pockets as proven by him Those who vote for him are idiots. Do you honestly think if we didn’t kill him these terrorist wouldn’t kill us anyway? Woo blows my mind

  8. BwaHa

    It’s pretty evident that Biden can’t seem to tell which lie he told to whom and how many times he told it. See, that’s what happens when folks tend to lie more than not. They forget which one was the lie told to who and when. He should write them down on 3×5 cards before he tells them and keep them in a little card file so he’ll at least be a bit more in tune with what he’s lying about… at that particular moment in time.

  9. All Biden does is blow smoke up people’s a$$ ‘s , if it came to a war he would hide under the desk and if caught say he dropped something

  10. David in MA

    Democrats solution to almost everythng is hire more people and throw more money at the problem, and we see how that has worked.

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