Michael Hirsh for Newsweek interviewd Joe Biden, who will become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the new Congress. NEWSWEEK: I understand you’re planning to hold hearings on Iraq in January as your first act as chairman.
Joseph Biden: I am. We’re putting it together now. It will probably amount to six weeks of hearings. We’ll have experts who are left, right and center, neocons, internationalists and isolationists, to come in and dissect the various elements of our Iraq policy. For example, the never-examined premise upon which we say we’re going to stand up Iraqis and stand down ourselves. It’s not a question of getting them to stand up; it’s getting them to stand together … I’ve gone back and looked at hearings from the past to get some sense of how this is done from a historical perspective. We’re going to try to do something that is sound.
Will the hearings examine the report of the Iraq Study Group being co-chaired by former secretary of State James Baker and former House member Lee Hamilton, which is expected to be out by then?
I think that’s only part of it. It depends on whether Baker and Hamilton remain relevant. I’ve asked Baker and Hamilton to appear, along with former secretaries of State and Defense and other officials.
Will you produce your own, separate report with a set of recommendations?
That’s one of the things we’re considering. Via Steve Soto, who headlines the story "Biden Isn't Going To Wait For President Bystander To Fumble Again."
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