Biden Criticizes Bush on Pakistan

<Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) isn't president just yet. But he's practicing this week on Pakistan.

In a speech today at St. Anselm's College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Biden criticized President Bush for mishandling the current political crisis and called for a change of approach in dealing with Pakistan. He called for the U.S. to "be far more pro-active, not reactive and make it clear to Pakistan that actions have consequences."

Biden continued, "President Bush's first reaction was to call on President Musharraf to reverse course. Given the stakes, I thought it was important to actually call him - which is exactly what I did. I also spoke to opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.">

snip

<Biden said the U.S. must take a broader approach to Pakistan centered on the well-being of its people, rather than just the stability of its leadership, and said he would start by tripling non-military aid to the country, to $1.5 billion annually. "Instead of funding military hardware, it would build schools, clinics, and roads," Biden said. He would also create a "democracy dividend" of $1 billion, for the first year of democratic rule.>

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/11/08/post_188.html

because he realized the gravity of the situation, the Bush administration was still making statements to "call on Musharraf..." It wasn't until later that Condi contacted Musharraf and even then it was just to relay Bush's message (which very well may have been parroting Biden's statement).

I'm uncertain as to whether or not Condi has even spoken to Mrs. Bhutto - since Musharraf is their guy they may have not felt the need.

And is it any wonder that Musharraf also called Biden for input? I'm guessing he wanted to speak with someone who understood the situation, not Bush's dummy Condi.

and the rest of the world knows it. No one takes her seriously anymore.

What are we spending on Israel? We spread the dollars to secure our interest around the world. Pakistan is a critical country when it comes to stabilizing the Muslim world. Where is Osama? Probably in Pakistan. Who has nukes? Biden puts me in a comfort zone when he discusses how important relationships with Muslim countries are and how he plans to make "nice" with them yet not give away the store.

He has reasonable answers for just about everything. He continually blows my mind.

Go Joe:toast:

That just goes to show you who the expert is here in foreign policy. Cripes, we need Biden NOW to take over. Before it's too late.

What the hell?

as she has on other complex issues, or is she waiting to see what happens before she stakes out a position?

We should be backing the Pakistani people, not the tyrant Musharraf. This reminds me of our support for the Shah against the Iranian people, bad things came out of that.

agree with "Joe".

Very similar to the Shah of Iran and look at how many decades of hatred that bred.