Sen. Joe Biden: A New Solution for Iraq?

A New Solution for Iraq?Senator Biden Proposes Three-State SystemTL Staff U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has proposed his own exit strategy for the Iraq War.

With no end in sight to the violence in Iraq, American politicians are scrambling to find a solution. Infighting among the Iraqis has hardly subsized since the US invasion in 2003, and some think that a three-state system may be the best solution. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has suggested that the best solution may be to separate the warring factions into semi-autonomous political units.

Along with Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden published an editorial in the New York Times on Monday calling for what amounts to a federalist solution to the problems in Iraq. While the current Iraqi constitution already makes provisions for federalism, it gives a great deal of power to the central government. Following the example of the Bosnian split into three separate states along ethnic borders, Biden hopes that the division will ultimately bring Iraqis closer together. In the case of Bosnia, the Muslims, Croats, and Serbs were all allowed to keep their own separate armies which just this year were disbanded in an effort to strengthen their central union. The Bosnian political landscape has been far more peaceful in the years since the agreement.

While many argue over the logistics of pulling the American military out of Iraq, Biden and Gelb advocate a "third way" that would bring American troops home in a piecemeal manner that would ensure both the tranquility of Iraq and the safety of American troops. They accuse President Bush of not having an exit strategy and claim that their solution is bound to succeed and get American troops out of Iraq by 2008.
By dividing Iraq into regions of Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia autonomy, Biden and Gelb believe that Iraqis could sort out their differences as time goes on. They could ultimately break down the barriers between the provinces but not before deciding on some overarching policies that should be enforced by the central government.

Factionalism in Iraq has caused problems from threats of boycotting elections to suicide bombings. The Kurds seem unwilling to give up their 15 year sovereignty in Iraq while Shia Muslims know they have the capability to attain a majority in government but know that they cannot defeat a revolt by Sunni Muslims. The end result, Biden and Gelb argue, is inevitable civil war unless all groups are given some manner of sovereignty.