Dead WrongBy Thomas E. BrewtonRelying on Senator Biden's foreign policy judgment is risky.  Both he  and Senator Obama  backed the wrong horses in Iraq.When it was unpopular, Senator McCain stood up for victory in Iraq  and pushed for what later became known as the successful Surge.Senator Obama, of course, put his finger to the wind and followed  public opinion down the path of least resistance.  He famously  campaigned on a pledge to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq  immediately.  He has since failed to acknowledge the effectiveness of  the Surge, a denial that demeans the superior performance and valor  of our troops.He was joined in the demand for immediate withdrawal by defeatist  Democrat/Socialists including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,  Senator Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Congressman  John Murtha, who declared Iraq a quagmire of defeat.The consequences of an immediate troop withdrawal would have been  loss of credibility for the United States, emboldenment of Al Queda  to strike us with terror attacks anywhere in the world, and an Iraq  in feeble disarray, giving Iran the opportunity unopposed to move  into the vacuum and make Iraq a client state.With his support of immediate withdrawal of troops proven wrong, and  implicitly admitting that he is a foreign policy novice, Senator  Obama has endeavored to endeavored to fill the yawning void by  selecting as his running mate Senator Joseph Biden, long a member of  the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.What measure of solid foreign policy judgment does Senator Biden  bring to the table?  With respect to Iraq and the struggle against  Islamic jihad, what was the product of Senator Biden's putative  foreign policy expertise?In a May 1, 2006, op-ed article in the New York Times, Senator Biden  and his foreign policy advisor Leslie H. Gelb wrote:"It is increasingly clear that President Bush does not have a  strategy for victory in Iraq. Rather, he hopes to prevent defeat and  pass the problem along to his successor."...The idea, as in Bosnia, is to maintain a united Iraq by  decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group - Kurd, Sunni  Arab and Shiite Arab - room to run its own affairs, while leaving the  central government in charge of common interests..."Fourth, the president must direct the military to design a plan for  withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by 2008..."Bear in mind that the Democrat/Socialists have, since Senator John  Kerry's 2004 campaign for the presidency, advocated a more sensitive  foreign policy.  In general they have viewed foreign policy as an  international popularity contest, in which the sole objective is to  have all nations like us and never to do anything without the  permission of the UN, a policy which effectively precludes   definitive military action to protect our national interests.In that vein, Senator Obama campaigned on the promise to meet with  any foreign leader, friend or foe, for discussions without  preconditions.  Such an essay has only one pillar to lean upon:  Senator Obama's presumed superhuman ability to calm foreign  aggression with honeyed words from his lips.How well then does Senator Biden's Iraq dismemberment plan measure  up?  How effective a foreign policy advisor will he be as Vice  President?