THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 211, August 26, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
JOSEPH BIDEN'S BLINK ON IRAN
By Dr. Michael Rubin
SENATOR JOSEPH ROBINETTE "JOE" BIDEN -- THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANDIDATE FOR U.S. VICE-PRESIDENT IN THE
ELECTION OF 2008: BIDEN'S WEAKNESSES IN THE AREA OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY & INTERNATIONAL POLITICS --
A PERSISTENT & DANGEROUS JUDGEMENT DEFICIT SUGGESTED BY HIS RECORD ON THE ISLAMIST POLITICAL REGIME
IN IRAN -- HIS UNYIELDING PURSUIT OF "ENGAGEMENT WITH" (THAT IS, APPEASEMENT OF) IRAN -- MAKING IT EASIER
FOR TEHRAN TO PURSUE ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM -- OPPOSING TOUGH SANCTIONS AGAINST THE HARDLINERS
IN THE IRANIAN REGIME & IN THE REVOLUTIONARY GUARD -- OPPOSING CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION TO DESIGNATE
IRAN'S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION -- BIDEN AS TEHRAN'S FAVORITE U.S. SENATOR
FULL STORY:
In selecting Delaware U.S. Senator Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr., as his running mate, Illinois U.S. Senator and
Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., acknowledged the importance of foreign affairs to
this year's presidential election. Obama's Web site trumpeted Biden as "an expert on foreign policy" and a man "who has
stared down dictators."
As Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden is well versed in policy debates and carefully
choreographed trips. But his record on the Islamic Republic of Iran -- perhaps the chief national security threat facing the
next President of the U.S.A. -- suggests a persistent and dangerous judgment deficit. Biden's unyielding pursuit of
"engagement" with Iran for more than a decade has made it easier for Tehran to pursue its nuclear program, while his
partisan obsession with thwarting the Bush administration has led Biden to oppose tough sanctions against hardliners in
Iran's Islamist regime and in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Eleven years ago, on August 4, 1997, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proposed a dialogue of civilizations. The
world applauded. Biden spearheaded efforts to seize the mantle of engagement. In September, 1998, for example, Biden
told the Czech Foreign Minister that cutting radio broadcasts into Iran might better encourage dialogue. Not long after
President Bush declared Iran part of an "axis of evil," Biden headlined a March 13, 2002, dinner at the American Iranian
Council, an organization underwritten at the time by a dozen oil companies and dedicated to ending sanctions on Iran. At
the gala (at which Biden also endorsed regime change in Iraq), he spoke of the dichotomy between hardliners and the
reformers led by Khatami. In order to encourage reform, he invited "the elected representatives in Iran, to meet with . . .
members of the United States Congress." Biden indicated that it would not be his first meeting with Iranian
parliamentarians.
Fast forward a few years. Khatami left office in 2005 without implementing substantial reform. Between 2000 and 2005, in
an effort to engage Iran, European Union trade with that country nearly tripled. Yet, far from assuming a moderate
posture, "the elected representatives in Iran" allocated nearly 70 percent of the hard currency windfall into military and
nuclear programs. The November, 2007, National Intelligence Estimate affirmed the fruits of such investment, when it
found that Iran had pursued a nuclear weapons program until 2003. Although Biden's embrace of engagement coincided
with Iran's nuclear warhead work, he acknowledged no error. He told reporters on December 4, 2007, that President Bush
had "misrepresented" the intelligence in a drive to war and declared the same day, "You cannot trust this President."
Such poor judgment was not lost on Iranian leaders. Indeed, one of Khatami's top aides suggested that they came to
count on it. At a June 14, 2008, panel with Iranian journalists and political advisers, former Khatami spokesman Abdollah
Ramezanzadeh explained: "We had one overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert
policy, which was continuation of activities." He advised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to soften his defiance,
noting:
"During our negotiations and so long as we were not
subjected to sanctions, we could import technology.
We should have negotiated for so long, and benefited
from the atmosphere of negotiations to the extent we
could import all the technology needed."
Bush has been a polarizing figure, but most Senators realize that partisanship should never trump national security. In early
2007, evidence mounted that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was planning terrorist activities in Iraq. An August,
2007, National Intelligence Estimate found that "Iran has been intensifying aspects of its lethal support for select groups of
Iraqi Shia militants" and that "Explosively formed penetrator (EFP) attacks have risen dramatically." The next month, the
Senate considered a bipartisan amendment to designate the Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, an
important step to aid nonviolent efforts to deny it funds and financing. Biden was one of only 22 Senators to vote against it.
"I voted against the amendment to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization because I don't trust this
administration," he said. Distrust of the U.S. President is the nature of politics, but skepticism about foreign dictators and
their Brown Shirts is the backbone of judgment.
No matter. Biden's political games have made him Tehran's favorite U.S. Senator. As General David Petraeus struggled to
unite Iraqis across the ethnic and sectarian divide, Iran's Press TV seized on Biden's plan for partitioning Iraq and featured
his statements with the headline "US plans to disintegrate Iraq." Biden's attack-dog statements about U.S. policy failures
emboldened Iranian hardliners to defy diplomacy. In the December 7, 2007, official sermon, Ayatollah Mohammad Kashani,
speaking on behalf of Iran's Supreme Leader, declared:
"This Senator [Biden] correctly says Israel could not
suppress Hizbullah in Lebanon, so how can the U.S.
stand face-to-face with a nation of 70 million? This is
the blessing of the Guardianship of the Jurists [the
theocracy] . . . which plants such thoughts in the
hearts of U.S. Senators and forces them to make such
confessions."
The crowd met his statement with refrains of "Death to America."
Obama picked Biden for experience, but he might also have considered judgment. When it comes to Iran, Biden could stare
down dictators; too bad he blinks.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition:
Elections, PACs, & Political Parties
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The Middle East & the Problem of Iran
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Michael Rubin, a Ph.D. in History (Yale University) and a specialist in Middle Eastern politics, Islamic culture and Islamist
ideology, is Editor of the Middle East Quarterly, a senior lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School, and a resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Dr Rubin is author of Into the Shadows: Radical
Vigilantes in Khatami's Iran (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2001) and is co-author, with Dr. Patrick Clawson,
of Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Dr. Rubin served as political advisor to the Coalition
Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003-2004); staff advisor on Iran and Iraq in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense
(2002-2004); visiting lecturer in the Departments of History and International Relations at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
(2001-2002); visiting lecturer at the Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (2000-2001); Soref
Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1999-2000); and visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Yale
University (1999-2000). He has been a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew
University, and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
The foregoing article by Dr. Rubin was originally published in the Washington Post, August 26, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1974)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
August 26, 2008
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume X, 2008
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity