Reply #38: I found this transcript of Biden on Meet The Press (not sure if it's the one)

[Martin Eden]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18381961/">April 29, 2007
MR. RUSSERT: You said this back in October of ‘02: “We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.” Do you believe we’ll be in Iraq for a decade?

SEN. BIDEN: I said back then, before we went to war, I wrote a report saying the decade after, and everyone was talking about the day after. And the point I was making was, if you went in and used force, which he should not have done when he did it, that we were committing and signing on to a decade. That was the—that was the minimum requirement. I also pointed out we needed more troops. I also pointed out at that time we would not be greeted with open arms. I also pointed out at that time oil would not pay for this. It was a warning, a warning to the president. “Mr. President, the objective of us giving you this authority is to get inspectors back in, bring the pressure of the world community—which remember, at the time, when we were sitting here talking about this, the—at that moment the issue was are we going to pull out of—are we going to lift sanctions on Iraq or are we going to put more sanctions on Iraq? That, that was the context in which that debate was taking place.

I'm sorry, but I am not satisfied with that explanation. First, Senator Biden was on board with the agenda of a long term U.S. military presence in Iraq. What he apparently has a problem with is the incompetence with which the agenda was carried out. I guess I can't fault him for failing to anticipate such gross incompetence on the part of our government, and he did realize from the start it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. But I disagree strongly with the agenda in the first place, and Joe either didn't have a very firm understanding of the intent of this neocon administration to invade Iraq no matter what, or he understood and concurred. Any intelligent person familiar with PNAC and who listened to the rhetoric coming from the White House knew they weren't interested primarily in another UN inspection regime that might confirm the absence of WMD and avert a war.

After reading this transcript I have less regard for Joe Biden and the judgement he showed. If you have a better explanation from him, please post it.