Well the Biden plan, the one calling for a partitioning of the country actually makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.

I'm glad to hear you agree with it. Especially in light of the fact that FOX News has been somewhat against the plan based on their distorted reporting on it.

What the plan sounds like to me in essence is a "United States of Iraq".

And you're correct, I myself couldn't really stand Joe Biden but not on account of policy. To me he just comes off as completely insincere and smarmy. Like the ultimate politician, bleached phony smile and all. And I think that was on account of his desire for higher office.

Lately though and I think on account of that fiasco with the miner widow at the AFL/CIO debates, his aspirations have been so completely evaporated that he's actually starting to become something of a straight shooter which I really appreciate.

During the debate, he committed a fatal faux pas when he dismissed one of the Sago mine widows and moved on to an unrelated subject. He's done. And he looked beaten and defeated on Countdown on MSNBC the following day. Right there and then he finally got interesting. This man knows he'll never be President now. And now as a man who has NOTHING left to lose, he finally got REAL. This clip is unrelated to Iraq but it showed a depth of honesty that frankly was completely absent from this man in interviews before that day. Listen.

Finally back to Iraq.

 Originally Posted By: Biden Plan
...it would begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by the end of 2007, while maintaining a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists.


Now while the timeline has obviously moved forward since this was printed, I think the goal should be the same. A phased redeployment. It's just unfortunate that most of the rhetoric regarding this seems to be along the lines of "surrender" and "victory" or "defeat", "Win" or "lose". It makes for great sound bites and talking points but I don't think anyone, right or left, Republican Party or Democratic Party expects "winning" anymore in the sense that Iraq becomes some western democracy that tilts the region likewise. Not realistically and honestly anyways. It's just still a staple of the rhetoric but not supported by any intelligence assessments.