Biden's Iraq Plan May Have Helped
September 12, 2008

In his Sept. 9 op-ed "Iraqi Leaders Opposed Biden's Partition Plan" criticizing Sen. Joe Biden's plan for a decentralized Iraq, Dan Senor asserts that Sen. Biden's "proposal ended up unifying all the disparate Iraqi factions in opposition." This is untrue. Iraqi Kurdistan, which already has the strong regional administration proposed by Mr. Biden, strongly supports his plan. For the Kurds, the preferred alternative to decentralization is not greater unity but separation. In a January 2005 nonbinding referendum 98% of the Kurds voted for independence.

Mr. Senor is right to say that many Shiite and Sunni leaders have criticized the Biden plan. Their actions, however, tell a different story. Iraq's parliament has already passed a law enabling Shiites and Sunnis to form their own regions, and the largest Shiite party is moving ahead with its project to make Iraq's nine southern governorships into a single Shiite region. Under Iraq's constitution, regions can override federal law and can even have their own militaries.

Mr. Biden's plan is nothing more than an expression of support for decisions the Iraqi people have already made. While asserting it is doing the opposite, the Bush administration has been pushing along the same lines as the Biden plan. In 2005, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad helped negotiate an Iraqi constitution that establishes powerful regions and an almost powerless central government. And, the Sunni Awakening -- so key to the success of the surge -- is basically a Sunni military comparable to the one the Kurds already have.

Peter W. Galbraith
Townshend, Vt.
(Mr. Galbraith is a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia.)

The Wall Street Journal