US: A leading Democratic senator has called for Iraq to be partitioned into three largely autonomous states within a federation similar to that established in Bosnia a decade ago.
Joseph Biden, a former presidential candidate and the most senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, argues that radical decentralisation may be the only way to keep Iraq together and enable the US to withdraw. Writing in the New York Times yesterday Mr Biden accuses President George Bush of having no strategy for victory in Iraq but simply hoping to avoid defeat. "As long as American troops are in Iraq in significant numbers, the insurgents can't win and we can't lose. But inter-communal violence has surpassed the insurgency as the main security threat. Militias rule swathes of Iraq and death squads kill dozens daily. Sectarian cleansing has recently forced tens of thousands from their homes," he writes.
Mr Biden outlines a five-point plan to establish three autonomous regions under a federal government in Baghdad, with economic and political guarantees for Sunnis and a redeployment of US forces by 2008. "The Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions would each be responsible for their own domestic laws, administration and internal security. The central government would control border defence, foreign affairs and oil revenues. Baghdad would become a federal zone, while densely populated areas of mixed populations would receive both multisectarian and international police protection," he writes.
Iraq's constitution already has federal elements, including a provision to allow provinces to come together in regional governments but Mr Biden argues that all three ethnic groups have an appetite for greater autonomy. "The Sunnis, who until recently believed they would retake power in Iraq, are beginning to recognise that they won't and don't want to live in a Shiite-controlled, highly centralised state with laws enforced by sectarian militias. The Shiites know they can dominate the government, but they can't defeat a Sunni insurrection. The Kurds will not give up their 15-year-old autonomy," he writes.
A foreign policy hawk who supported the invasion of Iraq, Mr Biden rejects calls for a rapid withdrawal of US forces, but says that most troops should leave by 2008, with the US retaining a small residual force in Iraq to fight terrorists.
"We must avoid a precipitous withdrawal that would lead to a national meltdown, but we also can't have a substantial long-term American military presence. That would do terrible damage to our armed forces, break American and Iraqi public support for the mission and leave Iraqis without any incentive to shape up," he writes.
Mr Bush said yesterday that Iraq's new government represents a new start for the Iraqi people and a strategic opportunity for America.
"What we have begun to see now is the emergence of a unity government to represent the wishes of the Iraqi people. Last December millions of people defied the terrorists and killers, and said, 'we want to be free, we want a unity government'. And now what has happened is, after compromise and politics, the Iraqis have come together to form that government," he said.