Barbara Mikulski: “I am proud to cosponsor Senator Biden's amendment calling on the United States to actively support a Federal system of…”

“I am proud to cosponsor Senator Biden's amendment calling on the United States to actively support a Federal system of government in Iraq. The brutal reality is that Iraq today is being torn apart by sectarian violence. The Maliki government in Baghdad is too weak and too corrupt to lead Iraq's Sunni, Shia and Kurdish communities to the political reconciliation they need to end the fighting. Iraq is being torn apart by civil war, and U.S. military forces are caught in the middle. It is clear to me that President Bush has no strategy for ending the war in Iraq. It is up to Congress to provide the way forward to bring stability to Iraq and to bring our troops home. Our military has done everything we have asked them to do, valiantly and skillfully. But the experts all agree: there is no military solution in Iraq. We need a comprehensive political settlement that gives the Iraqi people control over their own fate and allows our troops to come home. Senator Biden has proposed a plan to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it. Rather than putting our troops between warring factions, this plan would give the Kurds, Sunni and Shia control over their own land and people, while leaving a central government in Baghdad responsible for protecting common national Iraqi interests. This plan has five major parts. Step one is establishing three autonomous regions in Iraq with a functional central government in Baghdad.”