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The destruction of a sovereign nation in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of civilization. A Republican or a Democrat, what’s the difference? In the end it’s the American empire and the 21st century PNAC ME mirage that seems to be destiny of our foreign policy. Horrible.
WASHINGTON May 1, 2006 (AP) — 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. 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.”
The White House (Condi Rice) on Sunday defended its prewar planning against criticism from an unlikely source former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Appropriate photo: invasion based on lies! (AP)
Juan Cole’s Informed Comment:
Colin Powell was pushed out as secretary of state because he sought to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, according to the Daily Telegraph. In another part of the interview, Powell criticized Rumsfeld for sending so few troops into Iraq …
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“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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If they manage to do this it will be a fullfillment of Israeli strategy. And I don’t know how happy Turkey would be with the Kurds getting a strong base in the northern of Iraq and their own oil supplies and a recognized militia too. (I suppose if you divide Iraq into three each part will have its own regional militia.)
My first thought on this idea by Biden is who died and made him King of Iraq-how nice that some non-Iraqi can start carving up the country to solve the mess that him and others here have perpetrated on Iraq. The term ugly and imperialist American also comes to mind.
Here’s a novel thought Senator Biden-how bout letting the Iraqi’s decide what to do with their country.
And Oui-a belated good to see you back.
I think that headline and the whole article suck. (ABC’s headline and article, I mean). They make it sound like Biden thinks such a solution can be imposed. Given Biden’s well-earned reputation as a horse’s ass maybe he does think that, but ABC is also putting some spin on this.
ABC got out their thesaurus and carefully picked words with negative connotations. “Partition”. “Divide”. Both uglier sounding than what Biden actually said, which was “decentralize”.
Spinning a different way, isn’t this the solution the Iraqis have already voted for? To me it sounds like Biden is just endorsing the constitution’s call for “self-governing regions”. Seriously, what other choice is there?