WTF Congress?
Breaking news:
US Senate votes to support partition of Iraq
WASHINGTON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The US Senate approved Wednesday a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.
In a vote of 75 to 23, the Senate passed the non-binding resolution touted by backers as the best hope to produce a political solution to murderous sectarian strife in Iraq.
The measure would not force a change in President George W. Bush's war strategy, but provides a key test of an idea drawing rising interest in Washington.
The plan, offered as an amendment to a defense policy bill, would provide for a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution to stop Iraq from becoming a failed state.
It proposes to separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.
It also aims to defuse sectarian violence by offering Sunnis a share of oil revenues, boost reconstruction aid and debt relief and launch an international diplomatic effort to rally the world's great powers and Iraq's neighbors to the new federation's cause.
Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.
US Senate votes to support partition of Iraq
WASHINGTON, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The US Senate approved Wednesday a Bosnia-style plan to subdivide Iraq on ethnic lines, touted by backers as the sole hope of forging a federal state out of sectarian strife.
In a vote of 75 to 23, the Senate passed the non-binding resolution touted by backers as the best hope to produce a political solution to murderous sectarian strife in Iraq.
The measure would not force a change in President George W. Bush's war strategy, but provides a key test of an idea drawing rising interest in Washington.
The plan, offered as an amendment to a defense policy bill, would provide for a federal system as permitted by Iraq's constitution to stop Iraq from becoming a failed state.
It proposes to separate Iraq into Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni entities, with a federal government in Baghdad in charge of border security and oil revenues.
It also aims to defuse sectarian violence by offering Sunnis a share of oil revenues, boost reconstruction aid and debt relief and launch an international diplomatic effort to rally the world's great powers and Iraq's neighbors to the new federation's cause.
Advocates say the plan, championed by Democratic senator and presidential hopeful Joseph Biden, offers a route to a political solution in Iraq that could allow US troops to eventually go home without leaving chaos behind.
