Biden pairs with Gelb on Iraq

Senator Joe Biden says there is a "third way" to solving the (insert noun here) in Iraq. With Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has proposed the Biden-Gelb plan.

The Biden-Gelb plan would:

  1. Keep Iraq together by giving its major groups breathing room in their own regions. A central government would be left in charge of common interests like defending the borders and distributing oil revenues.
  2. Secure the support of the Sunnis -- who have no oil -- by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenue.
  3. Increase, not end, reconstruction assistance but insist that the oil-rich Arab Gulf states fund it and tie it to the creation of a massive jobs program and to the protection of minority rights.
  4. Hold an international conference to enlist the support of Iraq's neighbors and create a Contact Group to enforce regional commitments.
  5. Begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by the end of 2007, with a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists.