2000: Calls to Remove Saddam Hussein Unilaterally

Joe Biden, the top Democrat on the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was willing to use unilateral U.S. force to attack Iraq.

UNITED STATES - MARCH 23:  FOREIGN AID BILL--Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., middle, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., left, and ranking Democrat Joseph Biden, D-Del., during the markup.  (Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jesse Helms, R-N.C., middle, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., left, and ranking Democrat Joe Biden, D-Del., are seen on March 23, 2000. Photo: Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images

As he fully embraced an ultrahawkish position on Iraq, in March 2000, Joe Biden said at a Senate hearing that if Iraq refused weapons inspections, he “would introduce a resolution calling for the use of force by the United States of America, if we have to do it alone, to go after Saddam Hussein.”

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