Biden to Pakistan: Restore Democratic Freedoms Or Lose US Funding

Des Moines, Iowa---After a nearly 40 minute stump speech to over 100 caucus
goers at the Des Moines Zoo Sunday night, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Democratic presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden gave HuffPost's OffTheBus his prescription for solving the current and dangerous situation in Pakistan: Restore democratic freedoms or you don't get the military aircraft or an annual $1 Billion check from the U.S.

Senator Biden: "I just spoke with former [Pakistani] Prime Minister Mrs.
Bhutto this morning to discuss the situation. I fear what will happen if he [Musharraf] forces the vast majority of Pakistani moderates to move in league with the more radical elements to overthrow him and then we'll have a similar circumstance we had with the Shah twenty-five years ago - where you have the moderates in league with the ore radical elements to get rid of a figure that is despotic in their view - and that's what's going to be my message to Musharraf tomorrow [Monday morning] when he calls me and that was my discussion that I had with Bhutto today."

HuffPost's OffTheBus: Do you have an ally in Mrs. Bhutto? You said you spoke with her this morning.

Senator Biden: "I have an ally in a sense that Mrs. Bhutto wants - she took a bit of a risk and as did Musharraf - he originally dropped all the criminal charges and corruption charges [against her] and in turn, she
agreed to come back and hold free elections. So, the key to this is - this
is still able to be dealt with, if in fact, Martial Law is lifted relatively quickly and he [Musharraf] assures the world that there will be general elections held for the parliament within 60 days. I think we can get by this and we can begin to form this new coalition that may be possible to keep radicalization of Pakistan from occurring."

HuffPost's OffTheBus: What would you do as President to restore democracy in Pakistan?

Senator Biden: "Yes. Look, Musharraf is not an independent actor. Musharraf is in a situation where the military, it matters to the military, if they have the P3's, these aircraft and these F16s [that the U.S. has promised to
deliver] and I would make it clear that if he, in fact, is going to continue to keep Marshall Law in place and not hold these parliamentary elections. If I were president, I'd make it clear I would withhold these sales. Because I think you're going to see a lot of pressure build, not only in the Pakistani society but within the Pakistani military, if he in fact starts to jeopardize their relative strength relative to India.

HuffPost's OffTheBus: Do you have a relationship with Musharraf?

Senator Biden: "Yes. When I said relationship, I've met with him many times and he
knows who I am, I know him well, we've spoken. I had a similar conversation
with the head of the security service for the Pakistan, a general at the
time, a day after 9/11. He was in town and I called the Ambassador and
insisted on speaking to him and I made it clear to him as one senator,
Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, that they had to withdraw
their support of the Pashto and the Taliban and if they didn't, they'd be
in real trouble....I think we have to have straight talk with these people."

HuffPost's OffTheBus:And if he doesn't, other than not sending the P3's, I mean we spend a lot of money over there - a billion dollars.

Senator Biden: "Yes...we send $1 Billion dollars there and it has to be tied
to continued democracy and cooperation for the money he's been given.

What I would be doing is what I've been arguing that we should do if I were
President for the last four years. We should be beefing up our presence in
Afghanistan. We should be changing our mix of troops in Afghanistan including intelligence assets as well as Special Forces.

We should be moving into position where we demonstrate not only to the
Europeans, who will then join us more in Afghanistan, but also to Musharraf
to embolden him to begin to cooperate with us more than he has been doing.

I believe this Administration is part of the problem. This administration, when it walked away from Afghanistan figuratively speaking, I think that was a sign to Musharraf, I'd better cut my deal with these folks, and I think that began the unraveling of this and the greater radicalization of Pakistani society.

I think if we were to demonstrate that we were there to stay in Afghanistan
and put the proper mix of forces in Afghanistan, I think you'd see
Musharraf much more emboldened to cooperate with us for the money he's been
given."

HuffPost's OffTheBus: "We also have a situation in Turkey with the Kurds. The
Turkish government is really on edge and has requested that the United
States to get involved. If you were president, how would you respond?"

Senator Biden: I know you know this but your listeners or readers may not
know this, the fact is the PKK, which is the radical element of the Kurds,
has been very engaged in trying to destabilize the situation in eastern
turkey.

There are about 4 million Kurds there. I think we should have - a long time
ago - been reassuring the Kurds that we were in no way supportive of the
PKK.

I would be putting significant pressure - and I've had this discussion with
Talibani [Iraqi President Jalal Talibani] in my office personally, that
they have to step up to the ball, stop providing havens for the PKK.

But we have a little bit of a problem. The PKK is sitting on the Iranian
border as well as on the Turkey border, but I think, we should have as a
policy non-support of the PKK and use our assets to help identify where
they are and not allowing them sanctuary...and I think that's the
demonstration we have to make to the Turks, they are our NATO ally."

Comments

[Bocababs]

Thank you Senator Biden. You warned us about Pakistan.

[pigsatthetrough]

So Biden says "we" will have funds cut off from Pakistan. Does he say something similar at election time. Something Like "we, Democrats" will cut off funding for Bush wars. Definition of 'stumping', as close to lying as you can get away with.

[JimReed]

"We should be beefing up our presence in Afghanistan."

Senator Biden,

What right do you have to be in Afganistan? We long ago demonstrated we are not really interested in capturing Bin Laden. The Bush administration probably understands killing or capturing Bin Laden might prematurely end their WOT. These people all understand we are not out to help them, we are only there for our own interests. Now we always have to oppose any more democracy there because we have alienated those people, and democracy would only help them express their hatred of us. Admit it, Senator. You have no middle east solution because America can't solve the problem. We can only make a bad situation worse as we use our superpower status to manipulate for greed. If we walk away, we can start to build a friendship with others around the world including Muslim nations. Even the most hardline terrorists will become our friend, but not while we are out to kill them. Can you see every year we are making the world situation worse? Can you talk to others in congress, and try to get some of our leaders talking about what is best, and not what the calculations show is politically possible?

[NewRiver]

Wow. I'll bet when Pervez heard Joe Biden's "warning" he probably started shaking in his boots.

Joe Biden? Get real. Who's he plagiarizing today?

[bdl0715]

Of all the candidates in either party, Biden is by far the most experienced for the job.

Biden/Richardson would make a great team, but I think Biden will be Hillary's secretary of state.

[Merrysunshine]

The article states:

Senator Biden: "Yes. Look, Musharraf is not an independent actor. Musharraf is in a situation where the military, it matters to the military, if they have the P3's, these aircraft and these F16s [that the U.S. has promised to
deliver] and I would make it clear that if he, in fact, is going to continue to keep Marshall Law...

Dear Huffington Post writers, readers and posters...

Please, can you get it straight...it's Martial Law...not Marshall Law.

Marshall Law was an Australian television series, which aired for one season in 2002. The show was conceived as a legal drama mixed with Ally McBeal-style comedy.

Then there was the Marshall Plan which was a United States program of economic aid for the reconstruction of Europe (1948-1952) after World War II and named after George Marshall.

Then there is Martial Law, the description I took from Wikipedia: the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.

Usually martial law reduces some of the personal rights ordinarily granted to the citizen, limits the length of the trial processes, and prescribes more severe penalties than ordinary law. In many states martial law prescribes the death penalty for certain crimes, even if ordinary law does not contain that crime or punishment in its system"..."In many countries martial law imposes particular rules, one of which is curfew. Often, under this system, the administration of justice is left to a military tribunal, called a court-martial. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus is likely to occur." (Habeas Corpus. which by the way, our current President has already stripped away from us).

I expect better of your "journalists" and typists to interpret Senator Biden's remark referring to Martial Law as opposed to Marshall Law. I hope Huffpost readers will learn the difference between Marshall Law and Martial Law.

[dalelegan]

We can't even pay our own bills. Why the H#&& are we givng money away to Pakistan.

This shows the moral bankrupcy of our government. Mortgaging our childrens future for pakistan, turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, giving billions of dollars we BORROW away.

Only Ron Paul has voted consistently against this nonsense.

[SaintZak]

So when Hillary Clinton makes a statment on the Pakistani situation that nothing but meaningless murky double talk and evasion, and Obama makes a statment that is basically throwing his hands out and saying, "Listen, we can do better." why will it be front page news. Yet Biden actually confronts the situation headon and it will go un-noticed?

[PigLipstick]

Hey, Musharraf can't be all that bad, after all, anyone who kicks the butts of that many lawyers can't be all that bad.

If we took that action here we might be surprised how quickly our country would become ours again, though it would leave DC a ghost town !

[AlphaMutt]

I've been touting a ticket of Biden/Richardson to anyone that would listen for well over a year now. Aside from the environment, foreign relations WILL BE the biggest issue of the next ten years. And considering how badly this current administration has completely FUBAR'd in this area it is essential that we have someone at the switch that knows what in the hell they're doing. Joe Biden and Bill Richardson would be a formidable team. Plus, they'd bust up the cozy little cabal of the Bush-Clinton White House tag team and send Rudy Kazootie back to ground zero where he belongs.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Biden is right. The nation we should have been wary about wasn't Iraq. It was Pakistan. Pakistan has a well documented history of supporting terrorist and terrorist activities. Moreover, it is a nuclear power. The Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan was trying to sell nuke secrets on the black market for crying out loud. Our answer to all these things was to coddle Pakistan and give them more funding. Now the place is about to explode into civil war and the government that emerges might be a radical Islamic government that will have its hands on nukes and a boat load of cash supplied by the US. They will also be sympathetic to Al Qaeda and its efforts to fight the United States. Bush was so worried about the phantom WMD's in Iraq that he overlooked the very real threat that existed in Pakistan.

[nunzia]

Is it true that W is paying Pakistan over 1 million dollars a day for access to Iraq?

[conservativeoriginalist]

If I had to hold my nose and vote for a Democrat (which I might if Giuliani gets the Republican nomination), Senator Biden is my guy. He's mature, seasoned, reasonable by Washington standards, and doesn't take any shit.

Too bad he'll be relegated back to the Senate after the primaries, which are sure to anoint Hillary. I think he'd be great on foreign policy as POTUS.

[wild1a]

Musharraf is not nor has he ever been a buffer with respect to the fundamentalist Muslim movement (Taliban and Al Qaeda) growing in Pakistan. In declaring martial law (not Marshall as in the column) he is trying to maintain the power of his party, abetted by the military, over the liberal, educated, progressive faction composed of the upper and middle class elite. It has nothing to do with asserting any control over the surging militancy of fundamentalist Islam. He has been ineffective, if not reluctant in his attempts to aid the US in controlling the Pakistani Islamic fundamentalists in their assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan. This would increase regardless of his present coup since he was more interested in the billion a year for his military than in providing any meaningful help in controlling the Taliban. It is doubtful that even if his intentions lay in this direction that it would be possible for an effective military solution. Musharraf's actions may and probably will have other disastrous consequences but the Taliban, a creature of Pakistan, will not be affected by this coup.

[CSE]

How very odd. Sen. Biden fails to note that Afghanistan, as with Iraq, has a history of successfully rejecting occupation. A foreign military superpower can cause a lot of damage but cannot control an unwilling populace. Our solution, that has been criticized and then verified, is to use air assets indiscriminately - many times killing large numbers of the civilian population, but a change in military tactics will not bring peace to people who do not support their occupiers.

Then, as regards Pakistan, Sen. Biden does not consider or acknowledge that the moderates may already have significantly moved "in league" with the more radical elements - forcing Musharraf's hand.

It's not like Pakistan is or has been stable in the past 30 years. The radical history against the west extends back into the 1970's - when they attacked the US embassy.

Come on Senator.
.