Joe Biden update: Iraq one of Obama's 'great achievements'

Who knew?

Thank goodness, Vice President Joe Biden went on CNN to chat with Larry King Wednesday night. So many think things are not going so well for the Democrat administration, as The Ticket chronicled here.

Many Americans recall the ex-Sen. Biden's Democratic primary plans to give in to Iraq's fractious factions and carve the country into three territories. And even more probably recall Biden's boss' plan to halt the Iraq war years ago. As long as it got started anyway without the permission of the then state senator.

Plus, of course, the vehement opposition of the Nobel Prize winner to the 2007 American troop surge of you-know-who from Texas that Obama knew for certain was only going to worsen sectarian strife there. (See 2007 video here.)....

Well, of course, it didn't turn out that way, thanks in large measure to the brave service of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who served in that war-torn land and helped peace to break out despite the loud political acrimony back home over their role.

Now, the Obama-Biden pair that opposed the Iraq war and its tactics and predicted their failure is prepared to accept credit for its success.

It seems that Biden, who's from Delaware when he's in Delaware and Pennsylvania when in Pennsylvania, is certain now that Iraq will turn out to be one of the Obama-Biden administration's greatest achievements.

No, really.

Here's how Biden put it to Lar:

I am very optimistic about -- about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government. 

I spent -- I've been there 17 times now. I go about every two months -- three months. I know every one of the major players in all the segments of that society. It's impressed me. I've been impressed how they have been deciding to use the political process rather than guns to settle their differences.

Biden did not elaborate on what all the administration's other "great achievements" were so far.

No doubt, Iraqis too are very thankful for that 2008 U.S. election. (Full King transcript here.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

Talk about success, openly click here to receive Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item all day every day. Or follow us @latimestot. You can also go to our new Facebook fan page here.

Photo: Lorenzo Bevilaqua / CNN

Comments

[R. Griffin US Navy Retired]

Posted by: Al W Mesa AZ | February 11, 2010 at 05:41 PM
QUOTE [limited]: "GW Bush Lost the Iraq War: "
UNQUOTE.

If former president Bush LOST the Iraq war, how the HELL could Mr. O claim
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"? Can't have it both ways!
Why don't you ask some of our returning soldiers who fought there?

If you were on the battle field of public opinion -- surrounded by the opinions posted here -- better see who is NOT at your back! With all due respect.

One of the greatest blessing of being FREE is the ability to form one's OWN conclusions without outside influence, NOT depending upon ONE source for "facts" -- and being able to be OBJECTIVE after weighing ALL SIDES of a subject. Without that -- freedom is without value. Your words follow very close to the usual blogs oft seen on the Huff and Puff Post -- and it's quite old! But, as a man who went to battle to PRESERVE the right of objective opinion -- I still give my respect.

[cracker nation]

OMG. All those hair plugs must have punctured the frontal lobe of his enormous brain, poor fellow. Any sucess in Iraq is due to the eeeevil BUSH administration with a no nonsense commander in chief and a tough,savvy and stronger vice president than this turkey.

[Glenn Koons]

If this Admin. is not the most inept since Carter, no one will ever get close to the inanity of Biden and the naif in the WH. These two leftist hypocrites taking credit for Iraq after for 8 years dissing W and our military and agreeing with Reid that the war was lost, is beyond credibility. These two leftist socialist pacifists could not protect my garage from roaming cats! Biden is now such a joke that even Obama's inexperience and radicalism looks more mature than Delaware Joe's. Good heavens, how did Dems ever ever put these two in the WH to wreck our economy and national security? That all ought to be ashamed and have buyer's remorse. And Indies? Well, in Nov. you can throw as many of these radical Dems out of office in all 50 states, state legislatures as well as Congressional offices and actually help American regain some sanity!

[caradjt]

Amazing, What an idiot. Blame the Bush people for everything nasty and take credit for anything that is going well. Please Mr VP remember your own statements about how Mr Bush's push for a surge would not work. Well it did despite your opposition. A rookie and idiot were elected last term. Hopefully the U S populas will remember this next election and put someone in office with some experience and brains.
I have never been lied to more often or to a greater extent than what this administration puts out..........

[Jay]

"frank burns" you are an idiot. It is called sarcasm. The point is the life of the average Iraqi has not improved since the 2008 election.

You're right, it flew right over your head - as I am certain many other things do.

[Jeremy]

you just cant make this up. We have a tool and a first class moron who has managed to move up the ranks to become our VP. With all the talent in this country, this is our guy? Its almost laughable.

[Shauna]

If by some miracle Iran becomes a free country in spite of the total lack of support for the freedom fighter by the American government... I suppose Biden/Obama would take credit for that too.

Not only did these men act treasonously on the Iraq war but they hate freedom and democracy and hope the Iranians have to live out their lives under the theocratic dictatorship!

If Iraq's example helps Iran break free. Bush gets credit for Iran too.

This administration is a disgrace to the name American. I am ashamed of them.

[Mike]

Maybe Biden should take some hints from Palin. He might get the facts straight if he writes some notes on his hands. This guy is the biggest bean bag. I vote to double the secret service on Obama. This guy is a heart beat away?

[steve]

this is not his war this is Bush's war obama better keep his mouth off this one3. The war he said was worth fighting was afganistan . Barry afgan is your war . Bush won his lets see what you do with yours.

[Iraq veteran]

I can't see how spending THREE TRILLION DOLLARS to help get a marginally better government in Iraq, not to mention losing 5000 America troops with another 50,000 wounded --- I can't see where that's a good deal.

[Steve]

Biden is delusional. I feel so safe knowing that Heckle and Jeckle are in charge of running this country. Man you people who voted for this outfit ought to be ashamed.

[Jim in Colorado]

Rules for Radicals teaches to co-opt the enemy's success and call it one's own.

[Reagan]

This is just one of the reasons that Larry King is as big a joke as Joe Biden. It never occurred to King to press questions to Biden about such an outrageous claim that Iraq success was a "great achievement" by the Obama administration. The Democrats are dying while we watch!!

[Gary Boughman]

Joe Biden is a career moron and this just more proof. How did this imbecile get to be a heart beat away from the presidency of the U.S.

Oh well, he could not be any worse than OBAMA.

[Mark Carlton]

Great achievement? With a quarter of his term gone, the only achievements Obama has are (1) hiring of crooks and lobbyists, (2) wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on ineffective kibitzing with the economy, and (3) burning through record amounts of political captial trying to ramrod a bad health care bill through congress (yes, that's congress with a small "c".) Thank goodness he's been about as effective as a potted plant.

[Martin Murphy]

Dear Mr. V.P.,

Have you no shame?! To claim credit for Iraq is beyond incredible!

[StephenRex]

I wonder what Harry "This War Is Lost" Reid thinks of this. Or if Barack "I oppose the surge" Obama agrees.

Meantime, my car's bumper will stay adorned with its "Next Time, Vote American" bumper sticker I got at keep2theright.com

[Nico]

Plugs Biden's got some nerve. This is the same guy who opposed the surge, insisted that it would never work, said the war was lost, opposed everything
that the Bush administration did and put in place, which has resulted in what he now calls his own success, and Obama's. Obama said it was a bad war, unjust and evil, that he would end it as soon as he was elected, and yet now his idiotic VP cites it as their great accomplishment? It's just astonishing.

[Nico]

Joe Biden is living proof that "You can't cure stupid".

[Mike]

I think the American people as a whole that voted for Obama because he was new, fresh and clean also getting caught up in the "historical" election of the first black president whereby relieving their white guilt deserved or not are now waking up to the fact they bought a pig in a poke and didn't know anything about this man they voted for. If I might borrow a phrase from Obama's ex-pastor "the chickens are coming home to roost."
The signs are there Americans are waking up to the fact there is a socialist revolution taking place that needs to be quashed and I predict it will be, There's too many patriotic Americans that will put partisanship aside to preserve our constitutional republic and free-market system.

Record bad winter has anyone seen Al Gore?

[Temper Bay]

Great God!...Joe really has no touch with reality. Nice guy but clueless.

[Robert]

Did Joe Biden actually say that? Does he really believe it?

Maybe he just woke up and hadn't remembered the history of the area.

[Night Wolve]

The most incompetent vice president in ALL of American history, Joe "Plugs" Biden, lathers us with, well, MORE of his incompetence... I still remember how I was supposed to fear Sarah Palin being in the VP slot, how unqualified she was, but thank God for "Plugs" here, what a winner! Exactly what we need more of: clean, articulate, intelligent, old white guys with hair plugs and a good whitey dialect to boot... I'm so comforted by the fact that he's a heartbeat away from the presidency...

[Night Wolve]

2) Seriously, what a joke this guy, the utter audacity. He's delusional... If he was talking about Afghanistan years from now, assuming it goes well, where they had a role in a troop surge (similar to the one with Iraq under Bush's final years), then yeah, that would be the appropriate instance to take credit for something. But my God, both he and his comrade Prezidente Bullshevik "NOT-THAT-HUSSEIN" Obama stood against the Iraq troop surge to improve the conditions there and rooted for failure because they decided that was their best way to win electorally in the states.

3) As long as the military did bad in Iraq, as long as the body count of US soldiers kept going up, they (democrats as a whole) would get to capitalize on that failure to improve their electoral chances, which worked out well for them considering they won back all branches of the federal government.

4) To come back now, and try to take credit for something that you stood against, that you worked against, and when you got into power, you simply had to allow the previous administration's policy play out, it's preposterous, outrageous! Thanks to a corrupt media (that's currently busy trashing Sarah Palin down), this fool can get away with something like this and he knows it.

5) Shame on you "Plugs". Shame on you! If you had any sense of decency, you'd resign!

6) P.S. Props to the LATIMES for holding this man accountable. I'm still scratching my head that I found this article here of all places. Congratulations for remembering what journalism is all about!

[Eyeball]

Ha-ha! Biden is such a dufus. In his mind, he is probably getting Obama and Bush mixed up. Maybe he thinks he is Chaney.

[Michele Nahony]

WOW!!! Did I just hear Biden and the Obama administration attempting to take credit for the success of the Iraq war. Does he think we are that stupid? From tht start of the war, Joe Biden and many democrats questioned anything that was proposed to win the war including the surge. He is a joke.

[EmmaLG]

Am I the only one.... or are there ALOT of Americans... embarrassed about having a court jester and clown occupying the White House?
Baracket O'BoutMe is sooooooo...... full of himself..... and I can't figured out why????? He can't even talk to school kids without his faithful "Teleprompter".... and we're suppose to think this guy is "Smart"?
And wouldn't you think .... that if he was so great in school... that they would release his school and college records???
The Democrats talked the war down, while GWBush was in office and I don't think I'm the only one who thinks, that the Dem's were rooting for our enemies! I don't think I have enough fingers... to count all the DemWits who said "We are losing the war" or demeaned our soldiers.... just like Jack Murtha did, when he said "Our Marines are killing civilians"but happily... Jack will now be rotting in his coffin... just like Ted(splash/murder)Kennedy!

[Big Tom]

The man is truly delusional. What a clown and loser. Just like the entire administration.

[Bobarian]

OverBAMA, yet?

[Bill]

Just when you think Biden is about to have a moment of reality and not trip all over himself, along comes a statement like this to restore your belief in his complete dilusional detachment from the world. Well done again, Joe!

[Glenn]

Wow... I'm glad the President won Iraq! For a second there, I though maybe my incredibly brave young soldiers and NCO's did it, so I'm glad I saw this story. Really... imagine if I'd have gone the rest of my life thinking I'd done the hard work on the dirty streets of Tikrit instead of the Commander-in-Chief stepping in halfway through my last deployment and winning it for me!

[Al W Mesa AZ]

Posted by: R. Griffin US Navy Retired | February 11, 2010 at 07:21 PM
Above writer took my comments out of context:
I never once mentioned that our troops lost the Iraq war. Our brave troops fought galantly, but GW Bush let them down.

Posted by: Al W Mesa AZ | February 11, 2010 at 05:41 PM
QUOTE [limited]: "GW Bush Lost the Iraq War: "
UNQUOTE.

So now I will amend my comments:

"GW Bush won the Iraqi War for Iran"

Thanks to GW Bush we now have a Nuclear Iran, and a greater Persia in Iraq.

GW Bush upset the balance of power in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein fought the Iran/ Iraq war for over eight years. The Sunnis, Iraq, didn’t like the Shites, Iran.
GW Bush destroyed the top three enemies of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Republican Guard, and the Sunni Muslims.

The Iranians were now free of their top enemies, thanks, GW Bush. So, the Iranians diverted all their scud missiles to fight Israel in a proxy war. And oh yes, divert all their resources to develop a Iranian nuclear bomb.

GW Bush worried that Saddem Hussein would develop a nuclear bomb, give me a break. The Iraqi were nowhere near developing the bomb.

So, if your Think that GW Bush was a genius in invading and occupying Iraq, bankrupting our country, you are a cool aid drinking GW Bush fan.

Al W
Retired enlisted
Mesa Az

If former president Bush LOST the Iraq war, how the HELL could Mr. O claim
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"? Can't have it both ways!
Why don't you ask some of our returning soldiers who fought there.

[Jaysen]

I am so glad that the VP made it clear that Obama is the reason Iraq is a success. He decided not change a thing Bush had set up in Iraq and simply let the situation mature. Obama made no policy change, leadership change, or strategic change. In short, he left it well enough alone.

He is smoking Joe.

[Ike]

Okay, what the heck did they put in the coffee this morning? They just live in a LALA kind of world, where they never listen to the people. The primary problem with them is the need for a golden tractor (best thing for pulling your head out your _ss, or each others). Grow up and listen to the people and not each other!!!

[USMC IRAQ/AFGAN VET STILL SERVING]

Really? I served in Iraq 3 times and I can honestly say it is alot safer than it was in 2003. The Iraqi people were mad at us for taking so long to get back thier and clean house after the Iraqi Kuwait invasion. All i can say is good job President Bush your troops were and still are behind you. Semper Fi

[zip]

You just knew one day the internet was going to reach the trailer park.

[Marine Vet]

Biden, Obama, and the rest of the traitors in the democrat party have absolutely no claim to victory in Iraq.

[flopez]

Biden forgot to mention Obama's greatest achievement this year. . .his unequivocal victory over the Martian invaders and the Mole men. Next week I hear he'll hand the Chinese a check for the entire amount he's borrowed from them.

[K. Soll]

MOE Biden, CURLEY Obama, LARRY Reid ? The only difference is these MORONS are not funny. Keep digging that hole deeper and oh by the way where is all the Hope and Change
Sheeple that elected these spineless Pukes, go ahead try
to spin this one......

[BMorgan53]

WFT, is Joe Blabber being serious or is he making one of his infamous outbursts? What has the CFB* President accomplished, other than vacationing, traveling, taking his wife out to dinner, making speaches, and burning TV time.

*Compact Fluorescent Bulb – Kind of dim, "saves energy", and creates a toxic environment (releases mercury) if broken, and is a bitch to clean up after.

[D Fuller]

Obama will take credit for the achievements of others because he has not accomplished anything of his own. One year in on his Presidency and we are still trying to figure out what this guy stands for. All of his campaign promises have gone undone. Very sobering to think we have three more years ahead of us.

[Jeremy E]

I was excited to vote for Barack Obama (and Biden, as VP, I guess) in 2008, but this story just makes me sad.
I just can't understand how politicians (on both sides) can lie to our faces and expect us not to care or notice.
Obviously, Obama was *not* in favor of the Iraq war and had/has little to do with how it was handled. Even during his (one year, so far) Presidency, he has mostly let U.S. policy (in this one foreign policy theater) continue on auto-pilot on the path it was set on by the previous administration. There is no shame in that.
He has tackled other tough problems and broached subjects that his predecessors were unwilling to touch - he has his own accomplishments he can tout.
So, I just can't understand why the need to not give credit (where credit is due) to the previous administration makes lying to the American people necessary.
It is demeaning to everyone.

[ringmaster76120]

Wait a minute!~...This is all Bush's fault!

[Kevin]

US citizens are crazy. If you disagree, just look at the politicians they elect from the federal government all the way down to the local government (in both major parties). This country will lose it's freedom very soon. And no, Palin will not prevent that....

[DAK]

God's great gift to America of Obama is that we can all now see how Democrats think: Their brains are developed in such a way that they cannot perceive reality when it conflicts with their obtaining their self aggrandizing goals. They cannot be embarrassed no matter how intense their public humiliation is. So here is Obama, the most destructive anti-American President in history, the most widely and deeply despised, appears completely unfazed by all this and says the American people want government run Health Care and is able to confidently entice republicans to make fools of themselves, AGAIN.

[Mac]

The only people who are dumber than Biden and his savior Barry, are the ones who voted for them!

[Duane]

Biden, you absolute total idiot. The surge was introduced under the Bush watch and suceeded as a result of Bush's initiative. You must recall Comrade Obama's 4 seperate primary speeches declaring that he would never endorse the purge as a military tactic. It's clear to me Biden that you progressives are so desperate to report an accomplishment that you and your kind would lie about who deserves the credit - for the surge. You and your kind prove again and again to be as dumb as a box of rocks. It's most amusing to me to witness progressive swips at Palens intellegence from you progressive idiots!

[Ertdfg]

Finally Obama has found something, anything that he can take responsibility for.

Maybe next he'll take responsibility for something he actually did. That would be a nice next step.

Maybe the extra spending in the budget he just helped with for 2011, maybe the spending on the stimulus bill that went to somehow fail to create jobs, maybe the uncertainty in the job market as nobody knows who he's going to hit next... who knows.

But learning to take responsibility for something; even if you're just stealing credit, is something that he hasn't done yet; I'm heartened that he's found that much ability after a year of effort.

[Hale]

I was one of those who said Obama is like the Emporer who doesn't realize his tailors have inappropriately (un)dressed him. I made a terrible mistake in saying that. The real truth is the Obama-Biden team are the tailors - telling the American citizens how nicely they will be attired - once we all put on the Obama-Biden wardrobe. Clearly, America is refusing to change clothes.

[Paul P]

Sorry Joe, It's time for you to go. I see you majored in Astronomy in college as you are just taking up space. Do us all a favor and go away.