Joe Biden deserves lots of credit for being right about Iraq.

[karynnj]

9. The timing of this was important - it was fall 2007

This was a serious attempt to leave an Iraq where the various factions were able to all have some power and would thus have a vested interest in the country.

It goes without saying that it would have been better to have never invaded Iraq. However, in 2007 as Chair of Senate Foreign Relations, Biden did not have the luxury of people on a message board to just say it was Bush's fault.

In addition, it is an example of why Senators and Congressmen are said to sponsor ideas. This was a plan by two foreign policy experts, Gelb and Galbraeth. Their original proposal was to partition Iraq -- by the time the bill passed, the proposal was to support a conference where the Iraqis could define their future state.

The vote 75 - 23. The Democrats had only 51 Senators at that point.

Even though this passed, it was ignored by President Bush. Resolutions on foreign policy do not have to guide a President's actions. By the time Obama was President and Biden was the person he assigned to deal with Iraq, Biden did not push for that - possibly as both he and Obama wanted to get out as soon as possible.