Preliminary to the Biden Plan
A New Multi-National Occupation
by Edwin L. Young, PhD
August 21, 2007

For almost a year now, I have been persuaded that the Biden Plan was the only reasonable solution to the Iraq problem. I have also felt that our troops should be brought home and the vacuum filled with their neighbors and the UN. Today I have revised my thinking.

I still feel that the Biden Plan is the only solution. However, if we change our perspective to conform to reality, it is clear that we do not have a war but rather an occupation. While that is disagreeable, I am sure to the Iraqis, it is a fact and pulling out from our occupation could not lead to a solution. Just as Saddam did, the Iraqis need a strong hand to keep control and prevent a continuation of this wholesale mutual slaughter. As the occupiers, we should and we could disband the central government and take over in their place. The next steps would be to seek the assistance of Iraq’s neighbors and the European Union gradually to replace the majority of our troops. The new occupiers would have to bring in an overwhelming force to stay until the Biden Plan is in place and then they could gradually withdraw.

It is in the interest of everyone in the region to participate in this pre-Biden Plan operation. Once stability is enforced with a huge multi-national occupation, then each of the three Iraqi populations, Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds could be mandated to begin implementing the Biden Plan. They would have to begin to institute their own state governments within a loose federation. At the same time, a central committee consisting of representatives from each state would have either to elect or be appointed by the occupiers. Their duties would be to conduct the equitable distribution of revenues from the Iraqi oil industry and carry out other functions in accord with the Biden Plan.

The premise is that the Iraqi sub-populations will never be able to reach any accord as the White House and almost all of the presidential candidates wistfully assert that they should do on their own. It is not going to happen. Only a strong occupying hand can accomplish this. The multi-national occupiers could gradually withdraw as the Biden Plan is successfully implemented.