Addressing the threat of the Islamic State, Joe Biden inadvertently satirized himself at the New Hampshire Democratic presidential debate on Friday.
Biden did so by suggesting that he alone has the credibility to lead a global coalition to confront terrorist groups such as ISIS. Biden is right that cooperation is the best way of effecting positive counterterrorism results. Unfortunately, Biden used one of his greatest failings to make the case that he should be entrusted to lead this effort.
Describing a 2010 or 2011 meeting with then-President Barack Obama during his time as vice president, Biden noted how Obama told him, “Joe, I want you to organize getting 156,000 troops out of Iraq.” Biden then boasted of his record, proudly, saying, “I did that. I did that.”
You might indeed have, Joe, but you might not want to shout it from the rooftops.
After all, that withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq was a key causal factor in allowing ISIS to rise up in the first place. It was the Obama administration’s refusal to seriously negotiate an extension to the U.S. Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq that led to those forces being withdrawn. At the time, Obama and Biden were repeatedly warned that a precipitous withdrawal would jeopardize U.S. efforts to develop Iraqi security forces toward self-sufficiency and keep a lid on al Qaeda in Iraq, but they didn’t care. What they cared about was getting U.S. troops out of Iraq so that Obama-Biden 2012 could campaign on ending a war. Threat assessments be damned. They wanted a slogan.
The cost, of course, was that the war against al Qaeda in Iraq was over and won by 2011. U.S. forces were then engaged in training and in consolidating moderate Iraqi politicians against incessant Iranian efforts to destroy Iraq’s burgeoning democracy.
As predicted, the Obama-Biden withdrawal (if Biden wants to take credit, let’s give it!) created space for ISIS’s 2012-13 upsurge. As a result of Biden’s willful disregard of the intelligence, Americans had to go back to finish the job.
So, sorry, Joe Biden. You don’t have very much credibility on ISIS or counterterrorism at large.
