Sen. Joe Biden Responds to President Bush's Speech on Iraq

Press Release

SEN. JOE BIDEN Responds to President Bush's Speech on Iraq

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement today after President Bush's speech at the Annual Convention for the Veterans of Foreign Wars:

"President Bush continues to cling to a fundamentally flawed premise - that Iraqis will rally behind a strong central government. That will not happen. There's no trust within the Iraqi government; no trust of the government by the Iraqi people; no capacity of that government to deliver security or services; and no prospect that it will build that trust or capacity any time soon. Unless Iraq moves towards a federal system that gives the warring factions breathing room, we will end up trading a dictator for chaos that will set back our national security interests for a generation. President Bush today attempted to draw an analogy to Vietnam, but in fact it's the President's policies that are pushing us toward another Saigon moment - with helicopters fleeing the roof of our embassy - which he says he wants to avoid.

"The President also continues to play the American people for fools - conflating the terrorists of 9/11 with Al Qaeda in Iraq today. Al Qaeda in Iraq didn't exist before we invaded - it is a Bush fulfilling prophecy."

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