Vote To Divide Iraq

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

The Kurds are already paying Sunnis to leave Kirkuk. Money can buy a lot of action, especially when people have nothing left. The "soft" partitioning will most likely fail.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

More anger and more placation.

BAGHDAD, Sept. 30 — The American Embassy reiterated its support on Sunday for a united Iraq as six political parties together voiced their objection to a United States Senate resolution endorsing partitioning the country into three states. In a statement, the embassy said: “Our goal in Iraq remains the same: a united democratic, federal Iraq that can govern, defend and sustain itself.

“Attempts to partition or divide Iraq by intimidation, force or other means into three separate states would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed.”

The statement rebuffs the nonbinding Senate measure, sponsored by Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and approved last week, which calls for Iraq to be divided into federal regions controlled respectively by Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. The proposal resembles the power-sharing arrangement used to end the 1990s war in Bosnia among Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

LINK

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

US Embassy weighs in on the partitioning of Iraq.

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, joined a broad swath of Iraqi politicians — both Shiite and Sunni — in criticizing a nonbinding U.S. Senate resolution seen here as a recipe for splitting the country along sectarian and ethnic lines.

U.S. aircraft killed more than 20 al-Qaida in Iraq fighters who opened fire on an American air patrol northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said.

LINK

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Quote:

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, joined a broad swath of Iraqi politicians — both Shiite and Sunni — in criticizing a nonbinding U.S. Senate resolution seen here as a recipe for splitting the country along sectarian and ethnic lines.

Just as I suspected. The Iraqi's want no part of partitioning.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

OK, then sassup? If the surge is working and violence is down, why are we even considering doing something that would probably increase the level of violence? This is a confusing subject.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Looks like the Iraqis can agree on somethings and work together. I bit of encouraging news.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's divided political leadership, in a rare show of unity, skewered a non-binding U.S. Senate resolution approved in Washington, D.C., last week that endorses the decentralization of Iraq through the establishment of semi-autonomous regions.

Also on Sunday, the U.S. Embassy joined the Iraqi politicians - both Shiite and Sunni - in criticizing the resolution.

The measure's advocacy of a relatively weak central government and strong Sunni Arab, Shiite and Kurdish regions has touched a nerve in the Iraqi political arena, stoking fears that the United States is planning to partition Iraq.

"The Congress adopted this proposal based on an incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of the history, present and future of Iraq," said Izzat al-Shahbandar, a member of secular ex-prime minister Ayad Allawi's parliament bloc.

LINK

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Biden defendds his partitioning bill.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday defended his proposal for a three-way division of Iraq against criticism by Iraqi politicians and a rare rebuke from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

“It is not partition, it is not foreign imposition,” the Delaware Democrat, a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters in a conference call. “A federal Iraq is a united Iraq.”

The Senate last week adopted Biden’s non-binding proposal by a 75-23 vote. The “sense of the Senate” amendment to the fiscal 2008 Defense authorization bill (HR 1585) calls for Iraq to be divided into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish “federal regions,” with a weak national government to facilitate sharing of oil revenue.

LINK

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Epyot is not on boaed with the partitioning thing.

CAIRO, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Monday voiced his country's rejection to a U.S. Senate resolution to divide Iraq, the official MENA news agency reported.

Egypt absolutely rejects such proposal to divide Iraq, Abul Gheit was quoted as saying, noting the unity of the war-torn country should be maintained.

The U.S. Senate passed a non-binding bill Wednesday, calling for limiting the power of Iraq's federal government and giving more control to Iraq's ethnically divided regions.

The U.S. Senate bill proposes to separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues

LINK

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

I thought the whole divison of Iraq issue was a bit far fetched to begin with.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

At one point, it is possible that something like this proposal may have been successful, but IMo, it is too late in the game to try and change things up.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

The Arab world is not thrilled with the vote. Of course, they a self-absord and are thinking onloy of their situation

October 4, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. Senate's passage of a nonbinding resolution calling for a formal separation of Iraq's 18 governorates into three autonomous regions that would reflect the country's largest ethnicities has sparked a massive outcry both inside Iraq and across the Arab world, with critics suggesting the United States has overstepped its role in Iraq.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Senator Joseph Biden (Democrat, Delaware) and Senator Sam Brownback (Republican, Kansas), passed last week with a bipartisan vote of 75-23, calling for a decentralized, federal system in Iraq with a limited role for the central government.

In a statement posted to his website on October 1 clarifying the intent of the resolution, Biden noted: "First, the Biden-Brownback amendment does not call for the partition of Iraq. To the contrary, it calls for keeping Iraq together by bringing to life the federal system enshrined in its constitution.... Second, the amendment is not a foreign imposition. Iraqis already have made the decision to decentralize in their constitution and federalism law." Moreover, he contended, "the amendment will not produce "bloodshed and suffering" in Iraq."

LINK

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Quote:

The U.S. Senate's passage of a nonbinding resolution calling for a formal separation of Iraq's 18 governorates into three autonomous regions that would reflect the country's largest ethnicities has sparked a massive outcry both inside Iraq and across the Arab world

It looks like another stupid move by our government. Rolling Eyes

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

I have said I have mixed feelings aboyut this. On one hand, it could be a way out of Iraq that would make most Americans happy. But then, I see a bigger sectarian complication in the making.

**CHUQ** · Agitator Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 3

Another op-ed piece on the partittioning. Some good stuff in the article.

With a strong majority of US citizens favoring withdrawal from Iraq within a year and presidential elections set for 2008, Democrats and moderate Republicans continue to face an uphill struggle to force President George W. Bush to change course.

But as many Washington insiders have publicly declared, any shift in the White House's Iraq policy cannot create a new reality; it will be bound by the fact that "there are no good options, just bad and worse options."

Enter the Biden-Brownback Iraq Federalism Bipartisan Amendment.

LINK

**Tumbleweed** · Admin Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts votes: 4

Quote:

Democratic Presidential front-runner Senator Hillary Clinton voted yes for the bill, while her competitor Senator Barack Obama abstained from voting.

Smooth move there by Obama. Gutless. Laughing