Joe Biden and Leslie Gelb wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times quite a while ago in which they laid out a proposal for a partition in Iraq. While the piece received some press at the time (little of it flattering) it has mostly gathered dust since then. Biden is trying his best to once again breath new life into this plan.

It may not be the best solution. As many have pointed out Iraqis by and large do not support partition; Iraqi identity is a strong force. However, as Biden says in a new Op-Ed today, in the South Carolina paper The State, “Absent an occupation we cannot sustain, or a dictator we do not want, there is no way that Iraq can be governed from the center — because there is no center.” George Packer, as I recently wrote, and others are starting to remind us that we must start to think about how we get out of Iraq, and what we will leave behind, if we are ever going to end this war. Perhaps Joe’s plan deserves a second look.

In Iraq, the military refers to those who have been killed as fallen angels.To date, 3,780 of our brave men and women have been killed in action.

How many more angels must fall before this war ends?

In January, the president asked us to support a surge of troops that would give the central government in Iraq breathing room to stand up on its own feet and to bring about political reconciliation between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
The State | 09/25/2007 | A plan for a stable Iraq