By Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar, AlterNet.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding resolution supporting “regional federalism” in Iraq. The measure is a disaster waiting to happen, and should be called what it is: a blueprint for ethnic cleansing and potentially a full-blown civil war.
The clunkily named Biden-Brownback Iraq Federalism Bipartisan Amendment is the latest in a series of calls for a “soft partition” of Iraq into three semiautonomous regions — split up according to ethnicity and sect — that appear to be gaining currency in Washington. The idea, championed for more than a year by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., would leave a weak federal government in place in Baghdad to divvy up the oil revenues and maintain the country’s borders.
Proponents of the plan deserve credit for understanding that there’s no military solution to be found in Iraq — that a political conflict requires a political fix. This already puts them miles ahead of the administration and defenders of the status quo, and they should be commended for seeking a practical way out of the mess created by the U.S. invasion.
(Original Article)