Biden: "Mr. President, the only mission you've accomplished is to embolden the enemy with your failed policy"

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) gave a good speech on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday in which, among many other things, he lashed George W. Bush for the raw hypocrisy in saying that Democrats could cause him to extend troops in Iraq (by insisting on a withdrawal), only to turn right around and extend the troops himself the next day.

An excerpt:

"If the President vetoes the emergency spending bill, he’s the one -- he's the one -- who will be denying our troops funding they need. He’s the one who will be denying the American people a path out of Iraq.

"The President’s double talk on Iraq is reaching new heights of hypocrisy. And I don’t say that lightly -- new heights of hypocrisy. On April 16, the President claimed that setting a timetable to start bringing home our troops would be to 'legislate defeat.'

"Just two days after that – two days later – his own Secretary of Defense had this to say: 'The push by Democrats to set a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq has been helpful in showing Iraqis that American patience is limited… that this is not an open ended commitment.'

"Then, in arguing against the Supplemental, the President claimed that by sending him a bill he would somehow be forced to veto, the military would run out of money for Iraq in mid April – which is not true, by the way – and as a result, he would have to extend the tours of troops already in Iraq.

"Extending those tours, the President said, 'is unacceptable. It's unacceptable to me, it's unacceptable to our veterans, it's unacceptable to our military families, and it's unacceptable to many in this country.'

"Unacceptable?

"The very next day – the very next day -- the administration announced its plans to do the unacceptable. It extending the tours of every U.S. ground troop in Iraq by three months. Talk about hypocrisy! Telling us the path out of Iraq is the way that's forcing him to veto a bill. That'll require him then to extend tours, because of that veto, that that's unacceptable.

"The very next day, he extends the tour of every person on the ground. Once you get over the hypocrisy, that announcement is an urgent warning that the administration's Iraq policy cannot be sustained without doing terrible long-term damage to our military."

You can see the full video of this part at YouTube.

Biden then went after Bush for continuing to say that it's Democrats who are hurting the troops and helping the terrorists when it is Bush administration policies that have killed so many troops and made our country so much less safe.

"Instead of working with Democrats and Congress on a way forward, this President, divorced from reality, is accusing us of emboldening the enemy and undermining the troops.

"Mr. President I have a message for you: the only thing that is emboldening the enemy is your failed policy. Mr. President, the only mission you've accomplished is to embolden the enemy with your failed policy. Mr. President, instead of escalating the war with no end in sight, we have to start bringing it to a responsible conclusion.

"If the administration insists on keeping this many troops next year, we are in serious, serious jeopardy.

"Let me conclude by saying that I believe it's my obligation as a Senator -- and I hope the obligation of everyone else -- to keep relentless, unending pressure on this President to come to grips with reality. To continually push every single day. To say Mr. President, stop, stop this policy of yours.

"It is my hope, even though he [The President] is likely to veto this bill, that we will keep the pressure on and ultimately convince at least a dozen of our Republican colleagues that it’s time to stop backing the President and start backing the troops.

"It’s time, Mr. President, it’s time to bring to responsibly bring this war to an end."

Here's video of that statement and more.

Kudos to Biden and all other Democrats who are keeping the heat on a White House so dangerous and so out of step with the wishes of the American people.