Biden: Divide Iraq & Lose the War

Slow Joe Biden's NY Times op-ed is filled with one stupid idea and one even bigger mistake. It's all caused by a misreading of facts on the ground in Iraq and misreading of American public opinion.
Iraq should be divided into three largely autonomous regions with less central control to stop the country from tearing apart, a leading U.S. Democrat proposed on Monday, but the White House rebuffed the idea.
This is an odd proposal for this reasons: Biden's proposal suggests that the U.S. controls Iraqi national politics. That's the worst signal that the U.S. could send to the region. Approving this policy would mean that all the hard work that's been done, both by Ambassador Khalilzad and by the Iraqi Parliament, was for naught.

Biden's timing couldn't be worse, either. Had he proposed this 3 months ago, he might've gained limited Senate support for this proposal. Republicans will reject this proposal now because the unity government is forming.
It is increasingly clear that President Bush does not have a strategy for victory in Iraq. Rather, he hopes to prevent defeat and pass the problem along to his successor.
It's becoming increasingly clear that Sen. Biden is either (a) stupid or (b) he's grandstanding to hype his upcoming presidential bid or (c) both.
Meanwhile, the frustration of Americans is mounting so fast that Congress might end up mandating a rapid pullout, even at the risk of precipitating chaos and a civil war that becomes a regional war.
TRANSLATION: Congress is so worried about public opinion that they might mandate the losing of the war in Iraq and giving al Qaida a new base of operations.

Sen. Biden doesn't think that'll happen because Republicans won't let it happen. Republicans like John McCain know that losing in Iraq isn't an acceptable outcome. PERIOD. If Democrats attempt mandating a rapid pullout, they'll get crucified at the polls for it. Karl Rove would have those commercials running day and night on FNC and local channels in every competitive congressional and Senate race in the nation.

It's true that most people are tiring of our deployment in Iraq but it couldn't be further from the truth that most people would tolerate letting Iraq turn into (a) al Qaida's new training ground or (b) a second Iran. Sen. Biden would be wise to understand that.

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Posted Monday, May 1, 2006 3:01 PM

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