Joe Biden

What impact is HIV/AIDS having on both emergency food needs and long term food security needs, especially in Africa?

I'd like to thank the Chairman for holding this hearing on hunger around the world and the challenges of an effective U.S. response.

To do so would be a very grave mistake. We have the means to help address food needs worldwide, and considering the relative abundance in the United States, a moral obligation to do so.

The irony is the burden is on you to show progress.

So my point is this is doable, this is doable, and I think you might find you get some support.

I promise you, as somebody who sat here for 30 years, we can get you that money.

I would come with some specifics.

I think it may be helpful.

You can build a school in Afghanistan that will house warmly and cleanly boys and girls, teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, and hire competent teachers, because you have this plethora of women qualified to teach.

Well, see, that I totally agree with you on that. But that is a programmatic, that is a policy decision we have been having trouble getting the administration to sign on.

The American people understand that, because we have told them, you have told them, everyone has told them, that very conservative elements of Islam, particularly Wahabi in origin, out of primarily Saudi Arabia, over the past years have…

And a constituent of mine.

I just have one, not a comment, one closing question if I may.

Is it your view that we have the ability-- and I am truly agnostic on this. I do not know the answer to this.

Thank you very much.

I am more concerned about the duct tape and the plastic that is being sold in the stores today in Washington, DC, and around the country than I am about making sure the human rights of the people of Afghanistan are returned.

I think that is a very important point for you to continue to make, because the President makes it to me every time I see him.

It is very difficult for me anyway to convince them that we in fact should be taking a greater risk by extending ourselves even more relative to Afghanistan.

Unless I can secure the area first, there is no likelihood that the resources in the rest of my country are going to be the province of or under the control of the central government.

Tell me how you think, no matter how much money got sent to the north, there would be a reasonable prospect of being able to safely begin to develop those oil reserves.

It would be helpful if you acknowledge the altruism of the American people.

Yes, Saddam Hussein is a very serious problem.

ISAF is the vital security blanket without which rebuilding efforts will be in grave jeopardy and the strength of the Central Government eroded and weakened.

I urge this Committee to continue to support the expansion of ISAF, and I hope the Administration will make every effort to press America's friends and allies to join in this effort.

I appreciate both of you being here and your testimony.