1998
Iraq Liberation Act

Murtaza Hussain

April 27 2021, 6:40 p.m.

President Bill Clinton speaks to Vice President Al Gore after meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about U.S. military policy concerning Iraq on Feb. 17, 1998, in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP via Getty Images

In January 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century sent a letter to President Bill Clinton calling on him to overthrow the Iraqi government and making that goal an official “aim of American foreign policy.” The letter — signed by leading Washington hawks such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, and Elliott Abrams — charged that U.S. policy was being “crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.” Less than a year later, that letter would form the basis for the Iraq Liberation Act, which codified changing the Iraqi regime as a goal of U.S. foreign policy and helped lay the groundwork for the eventual invasion. It also authorized increased support for Iraqi exiles, some of whom worked with the CIA. Joe Biden voted in favor of the act, which was signed into law by Clinton in October 1998. In touting his support for the law, Biden said, “So it seems to me that we have a big problem. Saddam is the problem. Saddam is in place. Saddam is not going anywhere unless we do something relatively drastic. It is clear our allies are not prepared to do anything drastic.”

The
Intercept_

1998
Operation Desert Fox

Jeremy Scahill

April 27 2021, 6:41 p.m.

Iraqi citizens are seen following the beginning of bombings by U.S. and British forces during Operation Desert Fox on Dec. 18, 1998.

Photo: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

On the heels of the Iraq Liberation Act, the U.S. carried out a four-day bombing campaign against Iraq dubbed “Operation Desert Fox.” In November 1998, Joe Biden again abandoned his insistence on congressional authorization for acts of war, arguing that President Bill Clinton “is not required” to get congressional support to bomb Iraq. But, Biden added, “I think it would be politically smart.” According to one account, Biden told a Clinton administration official not to worry about widespread protests in the U.S. against bombing Iraq and “advised Clinton to put on his raincoat — and launch away.” As many as 70 Iraqi civilians may have been killed in the strikes. During a Senate hearing on Iraq, Biden said that “the only way, the only way we’re going to get rid of Saddam Hussein is we’re going to end up having to start it alone — start it alone — and it’s going to require guys like you in uniform to be back on foot in the desert taking this son of a — taking Saddam down.” Biden opposed a later decision by Clinton to call off further strikes in the wake of public protests, taking the opportunity to once again criticize former President George H.W. Bush for not intervening to stop Saddam from crushing an uprising of Shia and Kurdish Iraqis that broke out following Iraq’s expulsion from Kuwait. In 1999, Biden argued that the Clinton administration’s policy of containment through sanctions, periodic missile strikes, and no-fly zone bombings was sufficient. “If 10 years from now nothing has changed, that’s not so bad,” he said. “A crippled but whole Iraq that does not threaten anybody in the region would be OK.”

The
Intercept_

1998
Bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan

Jeremy Scahill

April 27 2021, 6:42 p.m.

Ruins of the Al Shifa pharmaceutical plant are seen on Aug. 1, 1998.

Photo: Barry Iverson/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images

In August 1998, Joe Biden supported the U.S. bombing of a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan as well as a farm in Afghanistan allegedly used by Osama bin Laden as an Al Qaeda training site. The Clinton administration justified the strikes as a response to Al Qaeda’s bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania earlier that month. “Operation Infinite Reach” represented the first time the U.S. acknowledged taking a preemptive military strike and was a policy precursor to the borderless war strategy that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would promote after the September 11 attacks.

“I want to applaud and thank the president for being willing to take this action,” Biden said after the strikes. While the Clinton administration claimed that the Al Shifa pharmaceutical plant was being used by Al Qaeda to potentially make the lethal nerve agent VX, that claim was later widely agreed to be based on faulty intelligence. The bombing of the factory had dire consequences, as it manufactured an estimated half of all drugs in Sudan, including vital anti-malaria medications. “I do think it was the right move at the right time,” said Biden. The strikes occurred as the investigation into Clinton’s lies about his affair with a former White House intern intensified, and some analysts said the attack was intended to distract from the scandal. Biden retorted that any alleged connection between the two was “malarkey, pure politics.” He chided reporters, saying, “Does it make it harder for you guys to keep dwelling on Monica Lewinsky? It breaks my heart that you aren’t going to be able to talk about it for the next 24 hours.”