September 20, 2007
Press Release
Biden-Brownback-Boxer-Specter Champion Amendment to Defense Authorization Calling on U.S. to Support Political Settlement in Iraq based on Federalism
Washington, DC – Over a year ago,Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE), along with President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb, announced a detailed plan for promoting a political settlement in Iraq that would allow our troops to leave, without leaving chaos behind. The plan called for a decentralized, federal system in Iraq which would give its people local control over the fabric of their daily lives, including police, jobs, education and government services. A limited central government would be responsible for protecting Iraq’s borders and distributing its oil revenues.
Sen. Biden, along with Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), has proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill based on his plan for Iraq. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced on Tuesday that it will be a part of the package of Iraq-related amendments which will be put to a vote over the next week.
“The different Iraq measures that Democrats are proposing are not stand alone efforts, but rather necessary pieces of a comprehensive strategy to end the war in Iraq responsibly,” said Sen. Biden. “We have to deal with getting our troops home soon, we have to protect the readiness of our troops while they’re there, and we have to have a plan to leave behind a stable Iraq so our grandkids don’t have to go back a generation from now.”
The Biden-Brownback-Boxer-Specter amendment says that the U.S. should actively support a political settlement among Iraqis based on the provisions of Iraq’s constitution that call for creating a federal system of government, with strong regions and a limited central government. It also urges the administration to bring in the international community – including the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Iraq’s neighbors – to support a settlement based on federalism and to convene a conference with Iraqis to help them reach that settlement.
“Everyone agrees that there is no military solution in Iraq, only a political solution. That begs the question: so, what is your political solution? I believe we have an obligation to answer that question. That is what this amendment does,” added Sen. Biden.
“The Bush administration is pursuing a fundamentally flawed political strategy in Iraq. They believe that if we just give it enough time, a democratic central government in Baghdad will emerge that secures the support of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Others believe that the mere fact of us leaving will force Iraqis to come together at the national level. In my judgment, both are wrong,” said Sen. Biden. “There is no trust within the government in Baghdad; no trust of the government by the people; no capacity on the part of the government to deliver basic security or services; and no prospect the government will develop that trust and capacity anytime soon.
“Simply put, absent an occupation we cannot sustain or a dictator we cannot support, Iraq cannot be governed from the center at this point in its history,” added Sen. Biden.
A few key facts about the Biden-Brownback-Boxer-Specter amendment:
The legislation does not tell Iraqis what to do. It speaks only to what U.S. policy should be.
· Federalism is not a U.S. or foreign imposition on Iraq. Iraq’s own constitution calls a “decentralized, federal system” and sets out the powers of the regions (extensive) and those of the central government (limited). The Constitution also says that in case of conflict between regional and national law, regional law prevails.
· Federalism is not partition. In fact, it’s probably the only way to prevent partition or, even worse, the total fragmentation of Iraq.
· Federalism will not accelerate sectarian cleansing; it’s the only way to stop it. Iraqis are already voting with their feet, as yesterday’s article in the New York Times demonstrates. Before the surge, Iraqis were fleeing their homes at a rate of about 40,000 month; now, it’s about 100,000 a month. Unless Iraqis come to some kind of agreement on sharing power peacefully, the cleansing will continue.
The amendment has eleven sponsors: Joe Biden (D-DE), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Arlen Specter (R-PA), John Kerry (D-MA), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR).
Sen. Biden’s plan for Iraq has received accolades and bipartisan support from public officials, former Secretaries of State, foreign policy experts and editorial pages across the country. See what supporters said about the plan… visit Sen. Joseph Biden’s Official Website
Precisely how are the boundaries of the regions to be determined?
In the Case for Soft Partition in Iraq, the Brookings’ scholars discussed the boundaries issue. It is true that there are mixed areas in Iraq where Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds live together but those areas do not make up a big percentage of Iraq, and people already relocate to escape sectarian violence.
The boundaries will be determined by examining the ethnic and demographic maps and surveys of Iraq to make sure that no many people will have to relocate. The Committee of Article 140 (Iraqi Committee created by the Iraqi Parliament) already works on remapping the boundaries of Iraq’s 18 provinces. Great Britain did a disastrous job when it came to partitioning its former colonies but the U.S. helped putting an end to the Bosnian War by arranging a very successful partition. Again, federalism is in the Iraqi constitution and this amendment doesn’t come up with something new actually except that finally there’s a better understanding among the politicians in D.C. regarding the nature of the conflict in Iraq.