Biden leads dissent on Afghanistan

By Peter Baker - New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — A few hours after getting off a plane from America's war zones, Joe Biden slipped into a chair, shook off his jet lag and reflected on what he had seen. The situation in Iraq, he said, was much improved. In Pakistan, he said he saw encouraging signs.

Then he came to Afghanistan and shook his head.

"It has deteriorated significantly," he said. "It's going to be a very heavy lift."

Matt Rourke

AP - Vice President Joe Biden said he would reject the additional troops sought by Gen. Stanley McChrystal and accelerate training Afghan forces.

That was six days before Biden was sworn in as vice president in January, and just after he had met with President-elect Barack Obama, who had dispatched him on the fact-finding mission to figure out just what the new administration was inheriting. Biden's assessment was even grimmer during his private meeting with Obama, according to officials.

From the moment they took office, Biden has been Obama's in-house pessimist on Afghanistan, the strongest voice against further escalation of U.S. forces there and the leading doubter of the president's own strategy. It was a role that may have been lonely at first, but has attracted more company inside the White House as Obama rethinks the strategy he unveiled just seven months ago.

For Biden, a longtime senator who prided himself on his experience in foreign relations, the role represents an evolution in his own thinking, a shift from his days as a liberal hawk advocating loudly for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. The story of Biden's disenchantment with the Afghan government, and by extension with the engagement there, mirrors America's slow but steady turn against the war.

The percentage of Americans who approve of the way Obama has dealt with Afghanistan dropped to 44 percent in late September from 56 percent in April, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.

Biden does not favor abandoning Afghanistan, but his approach would reject the additional troops sought by Gen. Stanley McChrystal and leave the U.S. force in Afghanistan at 68,000 troops.

He would accelerate training of Afghan forces to take over the fight while hunting al-Qaida in Pakistan using drones and special forces. His view has caught on with many liberals in his party.

But others argue that Biden's judgment on foreign policy has often been off base.

They point out that he voted against the successful Persian Gulf war of 1991, voted for the Iraq invasion of 2003, proposed dividing Iraq into three sections in 2006 and opposed the additional troops credited by many with turning Iraq around in 2007.

Thomas E. Ricks, a military writer, wrote in a blog on Sept. 24: "When was the last time Biden was right about anything?"