[UPDATE] As was thought, the op-ed was thinned out. If you go to this link and read his speech on the subject you can see that his plan has addressed nore than the op-ed indicated. Thank you Sen. Biden for speaking out.

Today Sen. Biden published an editorial in the New York Times that was immediately called a plan for partition. That is false. In fact it is officers in the military who are discussing the possible partition of the country, not Senator Biden. Yet the White House dismissed it as a plan for partition. Leave it to the powers that be to mistake a plan for devolution as partition. It is so sad to see this happen but that's reality when your foreign policy is being decided by businessmen who know little about geopolitics except where the hydrocarbons are. If it was a mistake by the reporter then my apologies to the White House and a keep up the great work to the mainstream, traditional media; It seems clear that that is not the case.

Anyway, what Biden is proposing is the devolution of power; out of Baghdad and into separate ethnic regions. Powers that are regional region specific such as education, local security (police), et cetera. Still held by the state would be the big things such as the army and energy production, allocation, export, and revenue. This might sound like a partition but it's not, in fact it's a somewhat common and logical strategy. Partition would be part of the worst case scenario, the same one our current trajectory has Iraq headed. Bottom line, this is another plan. Place this beside all the other democratic plans the Republicans say don't exist. It's their favorite talking point right?

We want a plan from this administration because it appears that they have abused our military, our intelligence apparatus, and the public trust. A president that is not trusted does not deserve to wage any war without a consensus behind him.

Dr. Juan Cole takes another stab at it. It reads somewhat parallel to that of Biden but in my opinion better. Although I'd imagine Biden had some limitation on space, of which the blogosphere eliminates. Biden’s plan offers bullet points with plenty of uncertainties; which if you recall is what we got from the administration to begin with. Cole's ideas offer a more extensive plan...

Now that those who will remain nameless have had their turn at Iraq, and f'd it all up, it is time to get 'er done.