Published: 09/25/2007, The State

By Joe Biden

In Iraq, the military refers to those who have been killed as fallen angels.

To date, 3,780 of our brave men and women have been killed in action.

How many more angels must fall before this war ends?

In January, the president asked us to support a surge of troops that would give the central government in Iraq breathing room to stand up on its own feet and to bring about political reconciliation between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Eight months into the surge, the central government is no closer to competence. It is no closer to a political settlement. It has no capacity to deliver services and security. Most critically, it does not have the trust of its people.

And it will not have this ability in our lifetimes.

The surge is at best a stopgap that delays, but will not prevent, chaos.

One hundred thousand Iraqis flee their country every month, in fear of sectarian violence. Those who have remained in Iraq hide in their homes. Wounds, sustained over centuries, continue to burn. Each side in the civil war is thirsting for a shot at revenge against its sworn enemy.

Absent an occupation we cannot sustain, or a dictator we do not want, there is no way that Iraq can be governed from the center — because there is no center.

And the surge has put more American lives at risk with no prospect for success.

That is unconscionable.

It is now time to start drawing down U.S. forces, not just to pre-surge levels but well below them, and to limit the mission of those who remain to fighting al-Qaida in Iraq, training Iraqis to police themselves and helping them protect their own borders.

But while starting to leave Iraq is necessary, it is not enough. We also have to shape what we leave behind so that we have not traded a dictatorship for chaos.

I have a plan that offers the possibility, not the guarantee, of stability in Iraq as we leave.

It’s based on the reality that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds are not ready to put their fates in each others’ hands.

Instead, we have to separate the warring factions into separate regions, and give them breathing room, with local control over the fabric of their daily lives — police, education, jobs, marriage, religion — as Iraq’s constitution provides.

A limited central government would be in charge of common concerns, including distributing Iraq’s oil revenues.

A federal, decentralized Iraq is our last, best hope for a stable Iraq.

We should refocus our efforts on making federalism work for all Iraqis — at least that is the view I strongly hold.

I would initiate a diplomatic surge to do just that, bringing in the United Nations, major countries and Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran and Syria, to help implement and oversee the political settlement I’m proposing.

No one can want peace and stability for Iraq more than the Iraqi people. It is up to them, but we can help them get there by bringing power and responsibility down to the local level and taking the fear out of Iraq’s future.

Today the U.S. Senate will face a critical vote on the bipartisan Biden-Brownback-Boxer Amendment, which calls for working with the Iraqis to transition into a federal system. Members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle recognize that this plan is the only plan — the only plan — that will allow us the possibility of leaving Iraq without leaving chaos behind.

I encourage you to reach out to your senators and to the other candidates for president and urge them to support this legislation or if they won’t, to explain what their alternative would be.

The American people will not support an indefinite war whose sole remaining purpose is to prevent the situation in Iraq from becoming even worse. It is time to turn the corner and to move toward the plan that I have proposed.

It is time to start bringing our troops home.

We should end a political strategy in Iraq that cannot succeed and begin one that can.

If we make these changes, we can still leave Iraq without leaving behind a civil war that turns into a regional war, endangering America’s interests not for a year or two, but for a generation.

Sen. Biden is a Democratic candidate for president; his Web site is www.joebiden.com. This is the latest in a series of columns solicited by The State from candidates about the way forward in Iraq.

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