Biden-Gelb Plan for Iraq - One Year Later

Statement

Biden-Gelb Plan for Iraq - One Year Later

One year ago today, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb announced a five-point plan for a way forward in Iraq. The Biden-Gelb plan called for decentralizing Iraq - separating the parties and giving them breathing room in their own regions, held together by a limited central government.

"One year ago today, Les Gelb and I announced our plan for a way forward in Iraq. And one year later - with the Administration's flawed policy leading us nowhere and today's news that April is the deadliest month this year - our plan becomes more urgent every day."

"The Bush administration still believes that Iraqis will rally to a strong, democratic central government that treats everyone equitably. And the surge is designed to buy time for that government to get its act together. But there is no trust within the government, no trust of the government by the people and no capacity by the government to deliver security and services. And there is no prospect that we can build that trust and capacity any time soon. So the basic premise of the administration's approach is fundamentally and fatally flawed," Biden said.

"History suggests only there's only a couple other ways to keep together a country consumed by sectarian strife. One, you occupy the country for a generation or more. That's not in our DNA - we're not the Persian Empire or the British Empire. Two, you install a dictator. Wouldn't that be the ultimate irony for the United States - to go back after taking one down and install another one? Three, you let them fight it out until one side massacres the other - and that's not an option in that tinderbox part of the world. Or lastly, you make federalism work for the Iraqis. You give them control over the fabric of their daily lives. You separate the parties. You give them breathing room. Let them control their local police, their education, their religion and marriage - the very things they're fighting over. That's the only possibility: change the focus to a limited central government and the federal system that their constitution calls for," said Sen. Biden.

"Leaving Iraq is necessary," Biden said, "but it is not enough because it doesn't answer the critical question: 'then, what?' We also need a plan for what we leave behind, so that we don't trade a dictator for chaos that undermines American interests for decades. This plan offers the possibility of bringing stability to Iraq."

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