Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, were met in Baghdad by Christopher R. Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno.
It is time to leave Iraq. There is no productive relationship with the USA and the USA troops are unnecessary. A security vacuum in Iraq is not really possible. Iraq has no security and the Green Zone was never a place where 'Iraq consolidated as a country. It was a barrier of security for USA presence and nothing more.
Biden supports three-part Iraq split
Plan maintains limited central government
By CRIS BARRISH
The News Journal
March 4, 2007
Les Gelb had eased into his seat on a jet from New York to Washington late in 2005 when U.S. Sen. Joe Biden unexpectedly plopped down next to him....
...Supporters of the Biden-Gelb plan include Richard Holbrooke, architect of the 1995 peace accords in the former Yugoslavia and later U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Last month, during hearings chaired by Biden, former U.S. secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright had kind words.
"I'm sympathetic to an outcome that permits large regional autonomy," Kissinger told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee....
...Biden pointed out that Iraq's constitution "allows for the creation of federal regions." The document was approved overwhelmingly in a vote of nearly 10 million citizens in 2005.
"Whether it's three regions or five regions or 15 regions, this is a technicality that will be left to Iraqis on the ground," Talabani said. "What we need is a system of governance such that a multi-ethnic, sectarian society can live with one another. The centralized government has failed since its inception."
Sharing billions of dollars in oil revenues could ease Sunni opposition, Talabani said.
"It's critical to this plan," he said. "We need checks and balances in place to ensure all regions will get their fair share."
Creating the regions -- perhaps even making Baghdad its own region -- could hasten the peace process, Talabani said....
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20070304/NEWS/703040345/Biden-supports-three-part-Iraq-split
TODAY
..."The message that Biden conveyed is that the government should be formed by Iraqis without any regional interference," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said on state television. (click title to entry - thank you)
Biden is worried about the delay in forming the government, Dabbagh said, because the U.S. administration does not want a security vacuum.
"America knows the limits of its interference," Dabbagh said. "Biden said, 'I'm here not to support any party or side,' " and did not give specific suggestions, he said....
