Cavuto falsely claimed Biden's plan would split Iraq "into three countries"
SUMMARY: On Fox News' Your World, Neil Cavuto falsely claimed that Sen. Jospeh R. Biden Jr.'s recently released plan for Iraq is "one that divides the country into three countries separately by religion." In fact, Biden's plan "is to maintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it" into three "largely autonomous regions," Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite, "with a viable but limited central government in Baghdad."
On the May 1 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto opened an interview with White House communications director Nicolle Wallace by falsely claiming that a plan for Iraq recently released by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) is "one that divides the country into three countries separately by religion." In fact, contrary to Cavuto's suggestion, Biden's plan "is to maintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it" into three "largely autonomous regions," Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite, "with a viable but limited central government in Baghdad." According to Biden, "[t]he central government would be left in charge of common interests" under his plan.
In a May 1 speech to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Biden introduced what he called "a five-point plan" to "bring our troops home, protect our fundamental security interests, and preserve Iraq as a unified country." According to Biden, under the plan -- titled "The Way Forward in Iraq: Avoiding Partition, Preserving Unity, Protecting America's Interests" -- "[t]he central government would be responsible for border defense, foreign policy, oil production and revenues," while the "regional governments -- Kurd, Sunni and Shiite -- would be responsible for administering their own regions."
From the May 1 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:
CAVUTO: Well, the Iraqi government is more determined than ever to succeed. That is the word from Secretaries [Condoleezza] Rice and [Donald H.] Rumsfeld, both just returning from a visit to that nation. But Democrat Joe Biden, who, you might recall, has set his sights on the White House, is proposing a new plan for Iraq, one that divides the country into three countries separately by religion, while getting the vast majority of U.S. troops out by 2008. Is the White House feeling the pressure of all of this? Who better to ask than White House communications director Nicolle Wallace? Nicolle, what do you make of this?
WALLACE: Well, I think Senator Biden picks an interesting moment to question the Iraqi strategy. This is the Iraqis' plan for the future of their country. And I think, at a moment when the president's highest priority was to dispatch Secretary Rice and Secretary Rumsfeld to the country to show our support for this unity government and this fledgling democracy in the heart of the Middle East, it is an interesting moment, I think, to question the Iraqi plan.
""is to maintain a unified Iraq by decentralizing it" into three "largely autonomous regions," Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite, "with a viable but limited central government in Baghdad."
Like the USA. Is Cavuto anti-american?
I was going the same direction: "So, we're going to divide Iraq into.....STATES?
Biden's suggestion would make Iraq no more and no less like the USA. Is the USA effectively 50 different countries? If not, Cavuto doesn't understand civics enough to discuss the issue on the most rudamentary level.
"Biden's suggestion would make Iraq no more and no less like the USA. Is the USA effectively 50 different countries?" -Tex-
Well no, not exactly. They are 50 different states within a Union that were not based or divided up for religious or ethnic reasons.
I do however agree with Senator Biden's proposal for the most part. The only thing I would change would be giving the Kurds their own sovereign nation. They are not Arabs and do not need to be a part of Iraq. I would suggest they deserve complete autonomy, if they desire it, as I believe many do.
What about states rights, huh, you big jackass?
You'd think a righty like Cavuto would be all in favor of a federal system with a weak central government and strong states. But since a Democrat had the idea, that would require not being a flaming Bush-kisser. So who did he have on to defend Biden's idea? Or did he just give the megaphone to the WH flack and let her speak without challenge?
Cavuto seems to advocate staying with the Administration's plan (see PNAC) which seems to be "just keep killing Arabs until all the bad ones are gone".
where Cavuto said that the US should start acting like a superpower and start negotiating with oil rich nations like China did in where, Nigeria?
Does that mean that Cavuto wants the US government to compete with the oil companies or does he want to "nationalize" the oil companies