The Biden-Gelb plan would:

  1. Keep Iraq together by giving its major groups breathing room in their own regions and control over their daily lives. A central government would be left in charge of common interests like defending the borders and distributing oil revenues.
  2. Secure the support of the Sunnis — who have no oil — by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenue and reintegrating those with no blood on their hands.
  3. Increase, not end, reconstruction assistance but insist that the oil-rich Arab Gulf states fund it and tie it to the creation of a massive jobs program and to the protection of minority rights.
  4. Initiate a major diplomatic offensive to enlist the support of the major powers and Iraq’s neighbors for a political settlement in Iraq and create an Oversight Contact Group to enforce regional commitments.
  5. Begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by 2008, with a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists.

I really like this plan. It reminds me a little of some of Jack Murtha’s early talking points of a few years ago. Also, and, I think, most importantly, it address some of the serious screw-ups from when Bremer was in charge for the Bush Administration. But, more than anything else, it is a plan. A PLAN. Not the random dumping of uniformed pop-up targets that the Bush Administration keeps calling a plan.

The more I look at Biden, the more I like his candidacy. This plan, as presented, is a responsible push for an ethical withdrawal, unlike a lot of the other “Pull Out Now” happy talk that seems all the rage these days.