Biden has a theory about why many of his Democratic rivals put their hands up.

"I think that the whole political establishment of both parties has been either confused or a little intimidated by the president's jargon when he talks about terror," Biden said.

Biden argues that the blanket notion of fighting terrorism has damaged American interests not only in Iraq -- where he sees an irony in the emergence of strong Islamist enemies only after the American invasion -- but also elsewhere in the world, notably in the restive Russian republic of Chechnya.

"Terror is a tactic. Terror is not a philosophy," Biden said. "The war in Chechnya is a war of liberation -- it engaged in terrorist activities, but it is fundamentally different."

Bush's insistence on seeing Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as fronts in the same war, Biden said, is "the reason why [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's gotten away with murder."

Biden declined to criticize his Democratic rivals, but said that it's his coherent foreign policy views that make him the best choice for the White House.

"The whole point here is that it's kind of hard, unless you've really spent a lot of time thinking about it, to figure out exactly where you think America's place in the world is, what its role is," he said.

"And the next president ought to be at least as smart as his advisors."

Speech from 2007: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0507/3850.html

ChechenCenter.info