Our junior Senator, John Kerry, was on a tour of Afghanistan yesterday when bad weather forced the helicopter he was in to make an emergency landing in a stretch of mountains. He had to wait for three hours, while protected by troops on the ground and a F-16 overheard, until a US convoy was able to take him back to an air base.

Kerry was traveling with fellow Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel, and he joked afterwards that, "We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to do it."

We're not familiar with Biden's arm strength, but his lengthy oratorical style is the stuff of legend. Three hours was probably enough time for him to make at least one point about foreign policy.

Everyone was fine after the incident, and the delegation continued on to Turkey.