Senator Joe Biden’s Call for An Iraqi Federation

Senator Joe Biden

Back in May of 2006 Senator Biden from Delaware offered what many people now believe is the only serious Democratic alternative to the Bush admin-istration’s Iraq strategy. His plan has been steadily gaining steam and support on a bipartisan basis as frustration grows over the intransigence of the White House.

That support reached a major crescendo in September 2007, when the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding resolution calling for an Iraqi federation – what some have incorrectly described as “soft partition,” or worse, breaking the country up into parts.

The Biden plan is actually a call for the Iraqi govern-ment to follow through on ideas enshrined within their own Constitution. He is not advocating a radical new plan to be imposed by us, the occupying power. A federal system in Iraq is already written into the 2005 Constitution as follows:

• Section One, Article #1 of the Iraqi Constitution states, “The Republic of Iraq is a single federal, independent and fully sovereign state in which the system of government is republican, representative, parliamentary, and democratic, and the Constitution is a guarantor of the unity of Iraq.”
• Section Five, Article #116 states, “The federal system in the Republic of Iraq is made up of a decentralized capitol, regions and governorates, and local administrations.”
  (The 18 Provinces of Iraq are also referred to as governorates.)
• Article #119 states “One or more governorates shall have the right to organize into a region…”
• Article #124 of Chapter Three, Section Five states that the governorate of Baghdad (province) will be the capitol of the Republic of Iraq, and that it may not merge with a region. (The Constitution guarantees the many rights already held by the provinces.)

Sen. Richard Luger, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Sen. Joe Biden

The Iraqi Constitution recognizes the legiti-macy of the semi-autonomous region known as Kurdistan, which the Biden plan does as well. The “regions” referred to in the Constitution, should they form, would also be semiautonomous, much like our states.

Senator Biden is simply asking that the Iraqi government honor its own Constitution!

There is nothing radical about this and he is not advocating a drastic change in course imposed by outside forces. And he certainly is not asking for the breakup of Iraq into numerous independent countries.

For over a year, the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), which is supposed to make final recom-mendations to the Iraqi government about the implementation of federalism, has been dragging its feet and asking for one postponement after another.

Their report would begin the process of defining the powers of the semiautonomous “regions” as well as establishing how and when they would be formed and by what mechanisms their borders would be decided. Their report would also address the power-sharing arrangement the regional govern-ments would have with the central government in Baghdad – the same balancing act of state versus federal rights we’ve been experiencing throughout our country’s history.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), General David Petraeus, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, and Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), before the start of a hearing on Capitol Hill September 11, 2007, in Washington, D.C.

The Iraqi Parliament approved a federalism law a year ago, but it has gone nowhere.

The central government, which is predominately Shiite, is the primary roadblock in this process. They have no interest in the power-sharing nature of a federation. While they stall, obfuscate, and cling to power, the chaos in Iraq continues.

Senator Biden believes, as we do, that the breakup of Iraq along ethno-religious lines has been going on for many violent months. The terrible refugee crisis bears witness to this tragic process, as millions of Iraqis have abandoned their homes and communities to escape the sectarian death squads.

Leslie Gelb, Co-Author of the Biden/Gelb Plan for Iraq

The Biden plan should be embraced and promoted by the Bush administration because it falls completely within the parameters of the Iraqi Constitution. As more and more people have become aware of this, the more it has gained acceptance and support.

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