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Speaking on foreign policy, presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., told a crowd of 350 gathered in Alumni Hall Tuesday that presidential candidates must answer a two-word question after determining their Iraq policy: "What next?"
Before delving into his Iraq plan, Biden set a casual tone for the Dartmouth town-hall meeting, sponsored by the Rockefeller Center and the College Democrats.
"My name is Joe Biden and I used to be a Young Democrat," he said.
After calling President Bush's plan of increasing troop levels ineffective, Biden said that his own five-point plan for Iraq can salvage the situation.
Included in his plan were giving regional governments increased power and accountability as promised in the Iraqi constitution, making Iraq "the world's problem -- not just ours," and reducing troop levels to a 20,000-person residual force while funding reconstruction efforts to protect civil rights and provide jobs.
"If we leave Iraq immediately, the Middle Eastern states will feel compelled to protect what they see as their interests," Biden said.