Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I will not bring up the amendment or amend it now, but because time is of the essence for a lot of our colleagues, I wish to speak to what the changes are that were recommended by Senator Warner and others.
But before the Senator from Massachusetts leaves the floor, I wish to say to him--and I hope it will not in any way cause him any difficulty--he and I have been close friends for over 30 years, and I want him to know, and I want my colleagues to know, that much of what this amendment we are hopefully going to vote on is about is what the Senator and I have talked about for the last 4 years and that he has led on, including the international piece.
As a matter of fact, he led on it from a different perspective, as a candidate, as well. So I wish to tell him how grateful I am for his joining in this amendment. Quite frankly, it is a big deal that he is, and it adds not only credibility to the amendment in terms of our colleagues, but it adds, quite frankly, an international credibility to it because an awful lot of people around the world look to my colleague for his insights into what we do about the most critical issue facing American foreign policy today.
The truth is, in order for us to regain the kind of leadership in the world that I would argue we are lacking, we have to settle Iraq, and we cannot do it on our own. There is a need for the international community. Even if this answer is the perfect answer, it cannot be made in America any longer.
So I wish to thank my colleague and acknowledge that I have learned from him, and I wish to thank him for--and I know we use the phrase very blithely around here--his leadership. But I mean that. I wish to thank him for his leadership. He has been absolutely totally consistent on this point from before the time we actually used force in Iraq until today. So I want the record to reflect that.
Mr. President, while we are waiting to determine whether we are going to be able to proceed on the amendment, I think the concerns raised by several of my friends have been incorporated in [Page: S12033] the changes that have been made. I am not moving to amend it now, but I am going to tell my colleagues what the Biden-Brownback amendment will be.
In the findings clauses, finding No. (3) has been added, and it is to reflect the concern raised by the distinguished Senator from Arizona, Senator Kyl--and I suspect others, but Senator Kyl is the one who raised this with us, in that he wanted to make it clear--
