Last night I went to Joe Biden's book signing at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City, IA. This guy is something I have not seen for many years. I have more confidence in Joe Biden than I did John Kerry. I liked John Kerry. Joe Biden speaks the truth with compassion and understanding however inconvenient and awkward it might be. He can be awkward and painfully honest.
There was a question about Agent Orange and the personal cost of Vietnam. Joe Biden took the opportunity as politicians do to spin it into a point they would like to make about the cost of this war in Iraq. Senator Biden quoted Joseph Stiglitz estimated as a final price tag – somewhere between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. America will pay for the sins of the Bush Adminstration.
He mentioned how angry people are at his refusal to cut funding this insane war and how we must protect our troops from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He wrote the anti-mine provision in the last funding bill that will save our troops from traumatic brain injury. I personally know the cost such violence and so does Joe. We both speak personal gospel about the violence of brain trauma. America must prevent this cost to our troops if we can because we must.
I know this an orderly withdrawal will take a year or more. A disorderly rout will lead to chaos, a greater loss of American morale both in Iraq and here at home and huge body count of American dead as the Iraqis close into and shoot at our troops to prove their hatred of the American liberators/occupiers and personal worth to the Sunni or Shia factions that will rule their neighborhood. We will have betrayed them to a fate of violence far worse than Saddam regime could ever produce.
America's all volunteer professional military officer corps would suffer the worst blow to morale in American history. Imagine a majority of the officers in our army retiring all at once. No single battle or war could ever do that.
Every mistake made will increase the cost to future generations. America owns this war regardless of Bush’s criminal negligence. We can’t disown the cost or the troops who are wounded or dead in our name. It is simple and painful matter of honor.
Joe Biden is right when he says "There is no margin for error for the next president of the United States."
If Joe Biden had only 10 dollars to spend then he would spend 9 dollars for the care of our troops. Education? No. America must bear the burdens of the soldiers who defend us and our Constitution. President Bush and his party have broken the faith so it is left to us the citizens of the United States to stand with and for those soldiers whose bodies and minds might be broken but their faith and duty to each other never once wavered.
Soldiers don't fight for a flag, they fight for each other. I stand with them. Maybe if America’s leaders thought more about the human cost of war maybe they would be more Spartan in their approach to conflicts in future. There is a saying it was easier to great 30,000 Athenians to war than one Spartan. America can never repeat President Bush ham-handed mistakes.
Every other Democrat in this field wants to pick a fight with somebody. Everybody wants to fight but Joe Biden. He doesn’t want to fight his fellow Democrats but he will stand his ground better against the Republican know nothings than the populist Democratic race leaders we now endure.