October 03, 2008

Biden Fact Check : Did France and the U.S. Kick Hezbollah Out of Lebanon??

Sen. Biden from last night:

When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said, and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it
There are several assertions here:
1. The U.S. and France and kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.

2. Biden and Obama publicly argued for a NATO presence in Lebanon after we kicked Hezbollah out.

The first claim is silly and unsupportable. Hezbollah has been a continuous and weighty presence in Lebanon since its inception.

We can only assume that Biden was referring not to the terrorist group Hezbollah but to the neighboring nation of Syria. The U.S. and Europeans did cooperate to pressure Syria to move its troops out of Lebanon in the wake of the assassination of the Lebanese politician whose name escapes me at the moment, but that's a very different thing. Further, I seem to recall the Lebanese people themselves having a little something to do with that.

As for Biden and Obama being aligned in support of sending NATO troops into Lebanon, I don't remember that at all. This guy, who claims to have been involved, doesn't either:

As for NATO going in after the 2006 debacle, well, I’m the one who rounded up 8,000 French and Italians and a few thousand other Euros to go into Southern Lebanon along with an assortment of others in August 2006 and while working that issue for about 40 straight days I don’t remember a peep from Biden or Obama about NATO – which wouldn’t be budged despite our intense pressure in Mons. So, we went straight to Rome and Paris.
I don't know who whote that message or whether they know jack about anything. Could be a total fabrication. Going mostly from my own memory, though, I don't believe Obama or Biden ever came out in favor of sending troops into Lebanon. I watched the whole thing pretty closely and think I would have remembered that. I suspect it's yet another example of Uncle Joe's creative memory at work.

Over at Commentary, Michael J. Totten is less generous than I am.

By Ragnar Danneskjold, Typical Bitter Gun-Clinger at 12:28 PM | |