Biden: Split Iraq into three regions

[xpanda]

Is there a single politician (besides Ron Paul) in your country that would be willing to let other countries manage their own affairs???

(not a rhetorical question.)
__________________________________________

Biden: Split Iraq Into 3 Different Regions
By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions — Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni — with a central government in Baghdad.

In an op-ed essay in Monday's edition of The New York Times, Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record). D-Del., wrote that the idea "is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group ... room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests."

The new Iraqi constitution allows for establishment of self-governing regions. But that was one of the reasons the Sunnis opposed the constitution and why they demanded and won an agreement to review it this year.

Biden and co-writer Leslie H. Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, acknowledged the opposition, and said the Sunnis "have to be given money to make their oil-poor region viable. The Constitution must be amended to guarantee Sunni areas 20 percent (approximately their proportion of the population) of all revenues."

Biden and Gelb also wrote that President Bush "must direct the military to design a plan for withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by 2008 (while providing for a small but effective residual force to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest)."

(snip)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060501/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq

 

[eek.]

As can be seen recently there's a weeny problem.

Who gets to run the "central government" ?

Putting it into a US context.
Do you want the black guys the white guys or the hispanics running Central government ?

 

[docmercer--banned]

Eek: Hell ... "Brownie" of FEMA Fame is surely qualified or Harriet Miers of "George is the most brilliant man I've know" Fame would make a great selection

 

[eek.]

I reckon Iraq needs either a strongman, like Saddam, or to be split up like Yugoslavia was.

Iraqis aren't rooting for each other.

The probable end result would be a huge civil war, with the North backed by the USA/west and the South backed by Iran/Islamics.

 

[docmercer--banned]

we surely have "candidates" as much as we arm and bankroll thugs around the world

 

[YUNGBUCK]

If I've said it before, I've said it a million times....

We need to back Senator Biden for president in '08. You may not agree with his idea for Iraq, but at least he's got enough common sense to put an idea out there! This guy is a problem solver, not somebody who creates them, and then steps back and says "oh shit, somebody should do something about that!"
We are gonna win this year, and in '08 running only on the platform of common sense! What's wrong with Biden's idea? We are run by the bible belt right now, and none of us liberals are getiing any compensation! At least Biden offered them that!
:thumbsup2:

 

[levistep]

We need to back Senator Biden for president in '08. You may not agree with his idea for Iraq, but at least he's got enough common sense to put an idea out there!

How is it common sense to put out a bad idea?

 

[xpanda]

What's wrong with Biden's idea?

Because Joe Biden is an American, not an Iraqi. It should be up to the Iraqi people, and ONLY the Iraqi people, to determine the fate of their nation.

 

[JDeuce]

The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions ...



Seems like you're mixing up the definitions of proposed and demanded. Should he not be allowed to make an intelligent suggestion since he isn't an Iraqi?

 

[JoeContrarian]

The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions ...



Seems like you're mixing up the definitions of proposed and demanded. Should he not be allowed to make an intelligent suggestion since he isn't an Iraqi?

No. This is imperialism!!!:nopityA:

 

[YUNGBUCK]

The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions ...



Seems like you're mixing up the definitions of proposed and demanded. Should he not be allowed to make an intelligent suggestion since he isn't an Iraqi?

Thanx Deuce,
Look Stalin (I mean Panda), all I'm saying is that we need people who can at least suggest an exit strategy for this mess we're involved in! The current administration hasn't even thrown out an idea. Might there be a reason for that; hmmm, could it be that they don't want it to stop b/c they are sittin' back gettin rich off this war. That's just a thought!
Besides, if the Bushies really want this war ended (bullshit), then they should love the Senator's idea. Don't they want thewhole world to look like America organizationally and politically? Biden is just jumping in and spreading a little democracy with the jackasses in the White House!!!

ope: ope: ope: ope:
Do a little dance, spread a little freedom,
GET DOWN TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[levistep]

Who else thinks yungbuck is a ghoster? He writes like capn, but I don't think capn would ghost.

 

[xpanda]

The senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed Monday that Iraq be divided into three separate regions ...

Seems like you're mixing up the definitions of proposed and demanded. Should he not be allowed to make an intelligent suggestion since he isn't an Iraqi?

Seeing as how he's a Democrat, of course I know it's only a proposal.

However, when Democrats speak up about the war they are looking to influence policy, or voters, or both. Proposals, then, can be construed as potential plans, should the power shift.

 

[WildBill]

When are we going to accept the fact that in 5 or 10 years from now Iraq won't be any better off than it was under Saddam? There will be Sunnis running more than they should, the Kurds will get raped and pillaged like they always do, and the Shiites will be steaming trying to get Iran to help them offset all the money Syria will be pumping into the Sunnis.

 

[JudgeWapner]

Was actually thinking about this a couple of months ago. Take a model from Yugo. Don't know if it is realistic, but certainly worth consideration.

 

[JudgeWapner]

As to letting the Iraqi people decide, I think that ship has sailed.

 

[baseballfan+]

Is this a lefty proposing "nation building"? It sure sounds a lot like it to me.

 

[JudgeWapner]

BBF, not sure. Just time to consider alternative solutions. Always thought Yugolsavia remaining one country so long was a miracle. Only Tito kept it going. See the similarity with Iraq. You have 3 completely seperate factions. Not sure you are going to ever form a single country. If the Iraqi people in fact do....they deserve a lot of credit.

 

[JinnRikki]

Is this a lefty proposing "nation building"? It sure sounds a lot like it to me.

Speaking to a cheering crowd in Chattanooga, Tenn., one day before the Nov. 7, 2000, election, George W. Bush repeated a line that had by then been a standard part of the stump speech for many, many months--and one that now seems, in the face of looming U.S. military action in Iraq, quite contradictory.
"Let me tell you what else I'm worried about: I'm worried about an opponent who uses nation building and the military in the same sentence. See, our view of the military is for our military to be properly prepared to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place."

As you can plainly see it isn't the left that's so opposed to nation building. But that was before the "decider" took the helm.:missingte

 

[JoeContrarian]

JR, if the "undecider" were still at the helm (Bill "if-we-can-kill'em-tomorrow-we-might-find-a-better-way " Clinton), by now, there would be innocent blood flowing on the streets of the homeland (and interests around the globe).