Obama Campaign Officials Intend To Use Biden’s National Security Speech At NYU To “Draw The Sharpest Contrast Yet Between The Administration’s Record On Foreign Policy And Governor Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Positions,” But What About Their Own Campaign Promises?
ON IRAN
Obama Didn’t Think Iran Was A Threat
In May 2008, Obama Called Iran A “Tiny” Country That Doesn’t “Pose A Serious Threat To Us.” OBAMA: “Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela – these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we’re going to wipe you off the planet. And ultimately that direct engagement led to a series of measures that helped prevent nuclear war, and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall. Now, that has to be the kind of approach that we take. You know, Iran, they spend one-one hundredth of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn’t stand a chance. And we should use that position of strength that we have to be bold enough to go ahead and listen. That doesn’t mean we agree with them on everything. We might not compromise on any issues, but at least we should find out other areas of potential common interest, and we can reduce some of the tensions that has caused us so many problems around the world.” (Senator Barack Obama, Remarks, Pendelton, OR, 5/18/08)
ON RUSSIA
As Candidates, Both Obama And Biden Called Putin A Threat
Obama In 2005: “I Believe The Most Important Threat To the Security Of The United States Continues To Lie Within The Border Of The Former Soviet Union.” “Throughout the last half of the 20th century, one nation more than any other on the face of the Earth, defined and shaped the threats posed to the United States. This nation, of course, was the Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia. While many have turned their attention to China or other parts of the world, I believe the most important threat to the security of the United States continues to lie within the borders of the former Soviet Union in the form of stockpiles of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and materials.” (Senator Barack Obama, Congressional Record, 5/25/05, p. S5862)
- Obama: “The Threat Is Still Extremely Dangerous And Extremely Real.” “The situation in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union is drastically different than it was in 1991 or even 1996 or 2001. But, the threat is still extremely dangerous and extremely real.” (Senator Barack Obama, Congressional Record, 5/25/05, p. S5863)
- Watch Here
In A 2008 Presidential Debate, Obama Said That Russia “Engaged In An Evil Behavior” Under Putin’s Leadership. NBC’S TOM BROKAW: “This requires only a yes or a no. Ronald Reagan famously said that the Soviet Union was the evil empire. Do you think that Russia under Vladimir Putin is an evil empire?” OBAMA: “I think they’ve engaged in an evil behavior and I think that it is important that we understand they’re not the old Soviet Union but they still have nationalist impulses that I think are very dangerous.” (Senator Barack Obama, 2008 Presidential Debate, Nashville, TN, 10/7/08)
During A 2007 Presidential Debate, Biden Called Putin One Of The Three Biggest Threats To The United States. MSNBC’S BRIAN WILLIAMS: “Senator Biden, from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, what three nations other than Iraq represent to you the biggest threat to the United States?” BIDEN: “The biggest threat to the United States is right now North Korea; Iran, not as big a threat, but a long-term threat; and quite frankly, the tendency of Putin to move in a totalitarian direction, which would unhinge all that’s going on positively in Europe.” (Senator Joe Biden, MSNBC 2008 Democratic Primary Presidential Debate, Orangeburg, SC, 4/26/07)
ON FREE TRADE
Obama Wanted To Withdraw From NAFTA
In 2008, Obama Said He Would Threaten To Withdraw From NAFTA Unless Canada And Mexico Agreed To Renegotiate The Treaty. “In their final head-to-head meeting before Tuesday’s Ohio and Texas primaries, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) declared that they would opt out of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico unless those two countries renegotiated the pact’s labor and environmental provisions to the United States’ liking.” (Editorial, “At Best, A Pander,” The Washington Post, 3/1/08)
· Obama’s Top Economic Adviser Austan Goolsbee Privately Assured The Canadian Consulate That Obama’s Rhetoric On NAFTA Was More About Politics Than Policy. “On Feb. 8, Goolsbee met with the Canadian consul general in Chicago and offered assurances that Obama’s rhetoric was ‘more reflective of political maneuvering than policy,’ according to a Canadian memo summarizing the meeting that was obtained by Fortune. ‘In fact,’ the Canadian memo said, Goolsbee ‘mentioned that going forward the Obama camp was going to be careful to send the appropriate message without coming off as too protectionist.’” (Nina Easton, “Obama: NAFTA Not So Bad After All,” Fortune, 6/18/08)
Obama: “Sometimes During Campaigns The Rhetoric Gets Overheated And Amplified.” “‘Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,’ he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA ‘devastating’ and ‘a big mistake,’ despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.” (Nina Easton, “Obama: NAFTA Not So Bad After All,” Fortune, 6/18/08)
ON AFGHANISTAN
It Was The “War We Have To Win”
Obama: “When I Am President, We Will Wage The War That Has To Be Won.” OBAMA: “When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and the world’s most deadly weapons; engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism; restoring our values; and securing a more resilient homeland.” (Senator Barack Obama, Remarks At The Woodrow Wilson Center, Council On Foreign Relations, 8/1/07)
American Troops Were “Just Air-Raiding Villages And Killing Civilians”
Obama Said American Troops Were “Just Air-Raiding Villages And Killing Civilians.” OBAMA: “We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.” (Philip Elliott, “Obama Gets Warning From Friendly Voter,” The Associated Press, 8/14/07)
ON IRAQ
Wanted Syria And Iran To “Take Ownership” Of Iraq
In 2006, Obama Told Syria And Iran “To Take Some Ownership Over The Process” In Iraq. OBAMA: “The second thing I think the President needs to do is to gather up all the regional powers, including Iran and Syria who, to some degree, are enjoying watching us flounder there, but will not enjoy millions of refugees if Iraq collapses completely, and to them say, ‘You have to take some ownership over the process as well, the international community, but particularly, the Arab states in the surrounding region.” (Senator Barack Obama, Event At The Kennedy Library, Boston, MA, 10/20/06)
Believed The Surge Would Make Iraq Less Secure
In 2007, Obama Said The Surge Would Actually Worsen Sectarian Violence In Iraq. OBAMA: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse. I think it takes pressure off the Iraqis to arrive at the sort of political accommodation that every observer believes is the ultimate solution to the problems we face there. So I am going to actively oppose the president’s proposal. … I think he is wrong, and I think the American people believe he’s wrong.” (MSNBC’s “Response To The President’s Speech On Iraq,” 1/10/07)
Biden Supported Dividing Iraq Into Three
Biden Thought Each Of Iraq’s Three “Ethno-Religious Groups” Needed “Room To Run Its Own Affairs.” “[A]merica must get beyond the present false choice between ‘staying the course’ and ‘bringing the troops home now’ and choose a third way that would wind down our military presence responsibly while preventing chaos and preserving our key security goals. The idea, as in Bosnia, is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group – Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab – room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests. We could drive this in place with irresistible sweeteners for the Sunnis to join in, a plan designed by the military for withdrawing and redeploying American forces, and a regional nonaggression pact.” (Senator Joseph Biden and Leslie H. Gelb, Op-Ed, “Unity Through Autonomy In Iraq,” The New York Times, 5/1/06)
Biden Criticized Obama’s Plan For Iraq
Biden Said He Saw “Zero Evidence” That Obama’s Plan Would Create Stability In Iraq. “Asked to respond to the Illinois senator’s policy speech in Clinton, IA yesterday, Biden painted Obama’s plan for troop withdrawal as unrealistically rosy. ‘My impression is he thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany’ of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. ‘I’ve seen zero evidence of that.’” (Mark Murray, “Oh-Eight (D): SEIU About To Endorse?” MSNBC’s “First Read”, 9/14/07)