The Biden-Gelb plan would:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.