Iraqi President Talibani goes on CNN yesterday to defend Biden's plan for Iraq.

[jillan]

entire article:

International
'US troops may return as soon as they rearm Iraqi army'

Washington, Oct 8 (PTI): Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has said a susbstantial number of US troops in Iraq may return home by next year but it depends upon the time taken by them in rearming his country's defence forces.

"In the next spring, the United States can start to reduce tens of thousands of its forces from Iraq, if the rearming of Iraqi troops will be speedy," Talabani said on CNN's Late Edition on Sunday.

I think it's possible at the end of the next year that a big part of the American Army will be back here... more than 100,000," the Iraqi leader said.

Talabani supported the idea of US bases in the country but was not sure that the facilities would be permanent.

"I am supporting military bases and proposing three such bases since long after the end of the American regime," the President said.

One in the north, one in the south and one in the middle of Iraq, with small numbers of US officers and soldiers for training and for the stability of Iraq, and prevent our neighbours from interfering in our internal affairs. But I cannot describe if permanent, he said.

Talabani favoured the soft partition of Iraq into three areas, which was recently passed by the Senate pushed by the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph Biden.

"I agree with Senator Biden. I think the resolution passed by the Senate is a very good one. Those who criticize they didn't read it carefully.

"If read carefully, one finds that every article insist on the unity, security, prosperity and national reconciliation of Iraq. It asks our neighbours not to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs," he said, adding and it must be according to the population and the elected leaders of the country.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200710080923.htm

[gateley]

1. But, but, all those in-the-know DUers ASSURED me that Talibani was against

Biden's plan. :7

[jillan]

2. hmmmm - who should we listen to? DU or Talibani himself?

[IndianaGreen]

3. He is a KURD!

What did you expect him to say?

[jillan]

4. Hey -

I gotta take good news where ever I can get it :)

[lyonn]

5. And Maliki is Shiite and wants total Shiite control

Maybe when we let the Iraqi government know that we are leaving and that they should get their act together and make a little bit nice with the Sunni or they will have to fight the Sunnis And their foreign friends. Yes, we know Shiite have Iranian friends. George wants to drop bombs on them. The idiocy is that Iran is not the only foreign country interfering with weapons and insurgents.

We are the enablers. As long as we stay the Kurds are happy and for the time being so are the Shiites. Great, we let the chaos continue instead of a real solution, such as Bidens.

[karynnj]

9. Exactly

The Kurds were autonomous before the war - up in the no fly zone out of Saddam's reach.

At least the Biden plan has as a first step the regional diplomatic summit that has been advocated by Kerry and others, as well as Biden - and was passed by voice vote in last year's defense authorization. The Biden plan specifies that they are to define the states (partitions) and the role of the states vercus the central government. If I am understanding that correctly - the truth is once this summit starts (if it does), there is no way (and no reason) to control what they design. It also should be noted that Bush likely did not spend a second thinking of complying with the 2006 Sense of the Senate resolution to have a summit - it's been a years now.

The Arab League in 2005, before civil war was rampant, was speaking of the benefits of a summit. Isn't the French foreign minister backing a summit of some kind as well?

[rucky]

6. Biden's plan is the best leadership we've seen on the Iraq issue.

He deserves credit for pulling this off against considerable odds.

[jillan]

7. There was a great discussion on this on Countdown tonite.

Schuster was sitting in for Keith and he was interviewing some Iraqi expert. Schuster brought up Biden's plan and the guy he was interviewing said that Iraq seperating along secretarian lines is inevitable.

Schuster is one of the few reporters that pays attention to Biden.

[Disturbed]

8. ""Biden's plan is the best leadership we've seen on the Iraq issue.

Sponsored along with Brownback & got an overwhelming vote in the Senate.

It is a thousand times better than the Busholini plan.

[karynnj]

10. I think that he has shown more leadership on this than the rest of the

Presidential candidates put together. I think Kerry has been at least equal to him if you consider everybody. Kerry got an amendment in last year's defense authorization that called for the similar type of conference. It passed by voice vote because Warner recommended accepting it into the bill. (Warner in his Senate debate with Kerry on K/F liked that provision and said so) One difference is that Biden's specifies the type of government they should look at.

Kerry in co-sponsoring Biden's plan makes it clear that he backed this, where he didn't back the prior plan because this plan specifically has the Iraqis, not us drawing the lines. He also stated that, in his opinion, for this type of summit to work, it should be coupled with a deadline to provide the pressure of knowing we are not staying forever needed to force each faction to realize they can't have 100% of what they want. Here is a link to Kerry in support of Biden's plan and Biden's comments on Kerry.
http://www.kerryvision.net/2007/09/biden_gives_props_to_senator_k.html

Feinglod, likewise has been at least equal, between being the first to demand a target date for withdrawal, then Kerry/Feingold, then Feingold/Reid, and now being the strongest force to not fund the status quo.

Kerry and Feingold were out there when doing so led to derision - not the support of all Democrats.