Joe Biden: “I asked for a meeting, a private meeting with the Permanent Five of the Security Council... I said: What would you do…”

“I asked for a meeting, a private meeting with the Permanent Five of the Security Council... I said: What would you do, gentlemen--one lady; the British Ambassador is a woman. I said: What would you do, gentleman and lady, if the President of the United States asked each of your countries to participate in convening an international conference on Iraq? One of the Ambassadors... said: Senator, I would ask your President: What took you so long to ask? Then I can refer to the French Ambassador. The French Ambassador pointed out that there is an inevitability of us leaving. And if, in fact, we leave a shattered Iraq, his country is in trouble.”