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Parting ways with Bush, Brownback pushes
plan to divide Iraq 5.5.2007
By Rob Hotakainen |
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May 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - Sen. Sam Brownback says there's
only one sure way to bring peace to Iraq: Divide the
country into three states and separate the warring
factions.
With Congress and the White House at loggerheads
over a proposed timetable to end the war, the Kansas
Republican is part of an unlikely Senate duo that's
promoting the plan to partition Iraq.
Brownback and Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of
Delaware, both candidates for president in 2008, say
it would give breathing room for Sunni Muslim Arab,
Shiite Muslim and Kurdish leaders.
"I do not agree with setting a timetable for pulling
out of Iraq," Brownback, a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview.
"The day we pass that is the day al-Qaida declares
victory. ... This three-state, one-country solution
is your only viable political solution."
At the first nationally televised debate for 2008
Republican presidential candidates, on Thursday
night, Brownback touted the plan when he was asked
whether he'd differ in any way from President Bush
on the Iraq war. Some political analysts say it
could be a risky move for Brownback, who might lose
favor with conservatives by bucking the president.
The Bush administration, which is aiming to unite
Iraq under one strong federal government, dismisses
the plan. But it's winning attention on Capitol
Hill, since it's coming from two senators at
opposite ends of the political spectrum, both with
serious foreign-policy credentials.
Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said the plan would allow the three
states to make decisions involving "their local
police, their education, their religion and marriage
- the very things they're fighting over." He said
the Iraqi federal government would be responsible
for common interests such as securing the borders
and distributing oil revenues.
Opponents contend that political solutions can't be
imposed on the Iraqis.
"It's awfully hard for us, and frankly maybe
slightly arrogant of us, to try to decide what
politically will work for that country," said Sen.
Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., a member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
Congress had to return to the drawing board this
week after Bush vetoed a war-spending bill that
would have forced him to begin withdrawing troops
from Iraq by Oct. 1.
Brownback said the stalemate gave Democrats and
Republicans a chance to come together to end the
four-year-old war. And he said the United States
couldn't sustain the war with one-party support.
"There's a chance for both sides to show
statesmanship on this," he said.
Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia
who's advised the Kurds, is among the most
enthusiastic backers of the plan.
Galbraith, who's written a book on the subject,
argues that most Iraqis don't want civil war but
have rejected the idea of a unified Iraq. He said
Iraq's new constitution would allow the country's
three main groups to establish their own regions,
each with its own government, army and control over
oil resources.
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked
about the partitioning plan recently, she noted that
Iraqis aren't advocating such a structure.
"I don't think it is practical, particularly along
ethno-sectarian lines, to divide Iraq up and give
authority based on your sectarian identification, to
say there's a Shia part of the country, a Sunni part
of the country, a Kurdish part of the country," Rice
told RealClear Politics. "Baghdad is a completely
mixed city. What becomes of Baghdad? ... If you try
to do this, I think you're going to have an
explosion."
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the
University of Virginia, said the Republican
presidential candidates would have difficulty
separating themselves from Bush.
"What these Republican candidates are going to find
out, to their dismay, is that the eventual nominee
will carry the burden of the Bush administration and
the Iraq war regardless of his position. It makes no
difference," he said.
"That's how Americans assess responsibility; they do
it by party. So he (Brownback) can come up with 47
alternative plans, but he is going to have to defend
the Bush administration's Iraq policy, and it may or
may not be defensible by November of `08. Maybe
things will be better or maybe they'll be worse."
Moreover, Sabato said, the candidates run the risk
of angering the Republican base.
"Bush himself - and his Iraq policy - still gets
about a third of the American public support, and
that third is almost entirely Republican - and
activist Republican," he said. "They're the people
who vote. So they're stuck.
They have to stick with Bush but leave enough
daylight so that if somehow they get the nomination
they'll have a prayer of winning in November."
MCT
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