Biden Says His Tripartite Plan For Iraq Is Working
by Aaron Bruns KALISPELL, MT — Joe Biden’s proposal to quell violence in Iraq by splitting the country into separate, semi-autonomous regions by ethnic group — Shia, Sunni, and Kurd — may never have been formally implemented; but Biden says the good that’s happening in Iraq today follows from exactly what he proposed....
..."If Woodward's assertion as I understand it is correct, it comports with my belief that they knew certain changes that should be made but did not make those changes because it was an election year, and they thought it would reflect on them in a negative way. That's what I understand Bob to be asserting," Biden told a crowd of several hundred at a town hall-style meeting in Green Bay.... (click here)
Iraq Kurds and government end standoff over northern town (click here)
Wed Sep 3, 2008 4:54pm EDT
By Wisam Mohammed and Sherko Raouf
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government and minority Kurds resolved a dispute over control of an ethnically mixed town on Wednesday, Iraqi officials said, ending a standoff that had threatened to trigger violence.
Kurdish and Arab politicians ended the impasse by agreeing to withdraw both the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga security forces from the town of Khanaqin, home to Arabs and Kurds in northeastern Diyala province.
The Iraqi army had wanted to enter Khanaqin, which lies just outside the largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, to stamp government authority on the area. But Peshmerga forces patrolling the town had refused to withdraw.
It was unclear whether some Iraqi troops had already entered the town, or whether they were massed at its borders.
"It was agreed that the Iraqi army would withdraw...and the Peshmerga would withdraw to within Kurdistan. The Khanaqin police will control security and enforce the law in the town," said Ibrahim al-Bajilan, head of the Diyala provincial council....
