Plan for Withdrawal from Iraq
By Edwin L. Young, PhD
November 14, 2006

The following are the preliminary and tentatively proposed parts and steps of this Plan.

This Plan is consistent with the Biden Plan.

Inform the current, official, elected leader of Iraq and the Sunni and Shiite sectarian leaders and Kurdish leaders that the US and Coalition troops are leaving. At the same time offer them this proposal.

US diplomats can meet with the leaders of the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds and propose the reconstruction of the infrastructure and all else destroyed by the Western Coalition forces under the following conditions. The leaders of the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds meet as an informal Iraqi Coalition and agree to provide a joint citizen security force sufficient to guard transport to and from and at reconstruction sites.

The Iraqi Coalition should also agree to provide engineers and other indigenous workers to assist in reconstruction of the infrastructure regardless of the location, namely territories that are mainly Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish.

In addition, the Iraqi Coalition will permit workers from any of the other Middle Eastern countries to participate in the reconstruction projects side by side with the US, Iraqi, and other Western and Middle Eastern countries.

The funding for this reconstruction will come mainly, but hopefully not exclusively, from the US.

The Iraqi Coalition joint security and reconstruction personnel will always be present and involved in every aspect and every stage of the reconstruction wherever the location may be in Iraq.

If this formula for reconstruction works in a manner acceptable to all leaders and members of the new Iraqi Coalition, then at a date agreeable to all, the leaders of the Iraqi Coalition will begin to negotiate their own creation of a federation of three separate, equal, autonomous states. The three states shall consist of the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. A provision should be made for a gradual transition from the current government to the new Federation.

The Iraqi Coalition leaders will become, and begin acting, somewhat like governors of states with broad State’s rights. The form of government in each state should be left to be decided by the governors of each state and whoever else each deems appropriate to participate in this decision making for their state.

The management of oil industry should remain under the control of the Iraqi Coalition or Federation when and as it is formed. The number and composition of the managers should be equally distributed among the states.

The US and Western countries should suggest that a census be taken of the entire nation or Federation of Iraq. The Iraqi Coalition or Federation should proportionately divide the revenues from their oil industry based on the population census in each state, as a percentage of the whole nation.

If, as has been suggested, the presence of large numbers of citizens with Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd identification are commingled in neighborhoods of all three states, and, further, if they are not able to live peaceably together in these mixed neighborhoods, then the following plan is suggested. The reconstruction workers and Security forces from the three Iraqi states, other Middle Eastern countries, and the Western nations if requested, should be obliged to facilitate relocation to new and comparable homes in the states on their own ethnic identities or places of their own choosing.

If during the implementation of this plan it meets with serious barriers or opposition, the Iraqi Coalition or Federation, at their own discretion, should have recourse to unbinding consultation with experts from the European Union, the US, or any of the assisting Middle Eastern nations. This should also include requests for free assistance from these other nations, should they be willing to provide same.