Changes

==Arguments in favor==

==Arguments in favor==

In a 2006 ''[[New York Times]]'' article, [[U.S. Senator]] and future U.S. Vice President and U.S. President [[Joe Biden]] and correspondent and U.S. government official [[Leslie H. Gelb]] put forward an argument in favor of a soft partition of Iraq that would transform Iraq into a federal state, or federation, along [[ethnoreligious]] lines.<ref name = "biden"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/8/5/9097133/iraq-biden|title=Why DC loves Biden's terrible plan to divide Iraq|first=Max|last=Fisher|date=August 5, 2015|website=Vox}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/14/iraq-after-trump|title=Biden should not repeat Trump and Obama’s mistakes in Iraq|first=Zeidon|last=Alkinani|website=www.aljazeera.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2010/jul/21/joe-biden/joe-biden-says-he-never-called-partition-iraq/|title=PolitiFact – Joe Biden says he never called for partition of Iraq|website=@politifact}}</ref> In this article, Biden and Gelb involved the partition of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as a result of the [[Dayton Accords]] following the [[Bosnian War]] to be a success story that allowed the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to go on with their lives and for their country to recover after years of extremely bloody and brutal warfare.<ref name = "biden"/> Biden and Gelb advocated allowing each of Iraq's main groups–specifically Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and Shi'a Arabs–to run their own affairs while leaving the [[Iraqi central government]] in charge of their common interests.<ref name = "biden"/> Elaborating on this, Biden and Gelb argued that the Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions within a federal Iraq would all have their own domestic laws, administration, and internal security whereas the Iraqi central government would control border defense, foreign affairs, and oil revenues, with Baghdad becoming a federal zone while densely populated areas with mixed religious demographics would get both multi-sectarian and international police protection to significantly reduce the risk of religious and ethnic tensions and violence there.<ref name = "biden"/> Biden and Gelb argue that while critics might say that their plan would result in ethnic cleansing, ethnic cleansing has already been underway in Iraq and thus their plan would change nothing in this regard other than possibly making additional ethnic cleansing and an outright hard partition of Iraq less likely down the road.<ref name = "biden"/> Supporters of partition also point out that not all partitions have either resulted in bloodshed or ended badly, with the 1993 [[Velvet Divorce|partition of Czechoslovakia]], [[Slovenia]]'s 1991 secession from [[Yugoslavia]], and most of the [[break-up of the Soviet Union]] being both successful and peaceful cases of partition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/iraq-partition|title=In Iraq, breaking up is hard to do|first=Tanya|last=Goudsouzian|date=March 3, 2021|website=Le Monde diplomatique}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=1829|title=Partitioning: The Way Out of Iraq &#124; Ivan Eland|website=The Independent Institute}}</ref> In addition, Biden and Gelb's proposal also called for Sunni Arabs to receive 20% of all revenues in Iraq since this would be proportional to their share of the total Iraqi population.<ref name = "biden"/> Their proposal also called for an increase in U.S. aid to Iraq but making this increase condition on respect for the rights of women and ethnoreligious minorities, especially but not only in Iraq's Shi'a-majority southern region.<ref name = "biden"/> Finally, Biden and Gelb advocated for the calling of a religional conference under international or U.N. aegis for Iraq's neighbors to guarantee both Iraq's borders and the new federal arrangement that they proposed for Iraq in this article.<ref name = "biden"/>

In a 2006 ''[[New York Times]]'' article, [[U.S. Senator]] and future U.S. Vice President and U.S. President [[Joe Biden]] and correspondent and U.S. government official [[Leslie H. Gelb]] put forward an argument in favor of a soft partition of Iraq that would transform Iraq into a federal state, or federation, along [[ethnoreligious]] lines.<ref name = "biden"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/8/5/9097133/iraq-biden|title=Why DC loves Biden's terrible plan to divide Iraq|first=Max|last=Fisher|date=August 5, 2015|website=Vox}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/14/iraq-after-trump|title=Biden should not repeat Trump and Obama’s mistakes in Iraq|first=Zeidon|last=Alkinani|website=www.aljazeera.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2010/jul/21/joe-biden/joe-biden-says-he-never-called-partition-iraq/|title=PolitiFact – Joe Biden says he never called for partition of Iraq|website=@politifact}}</ref> In this article, Biden and Gelb involved the partition of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] as a result of the [[Dayton Accords]] following the [[Bosnian War]] to be a success story that allowed the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to go on with their lives and for their country to recover after years of extremely bloody and brutal warfare.<ref name = "biden"/> Biden and Gelb advocated allowing each of Iraq's main groups–specifically Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and Shi'a Arabs–to run their own affairs while leaving the [[Iraqi central government]] in charge of their common interests.<ref name = "biden"/> Elaborating on this, Biden and Gelb argued that the Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions within a federal Iraq would all have their own domestic laws, administration, and internal security whereas the Iraqi central government would control border defense, foreign affairs, and oil revenues, with Baghdad becoming a federal zone while densely populated areas with mixed religious demographics would get both multi-sectarian and international police protection to significantly reduce the risk of religious and ethnic tensions and violence there.<ref name = "biden"/> Biden and Gelb argue that while critics might say that their plan would result in ethnic cleansing, ethnic cleansing has already been underway in Iraq and thus their plan would change nothing in this regard other than possibly making additional ethnic cleansing and an outright hard partition of Iraq less likely down the road.<ref name = "biden"/> Supporters of partition also point out that not all partitions have either resulted in bloodshed or ended badly, with the 1993 [[Velvet Divorce|partition of Czechoslovakia]], [[Slovenia]]'s 1991 secession from [[Yugoslavia]], and most of the [[break-up of the Soviet Union]] being both successful and peaceful cases of partition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mondediplo.com/outsidein/iraq-partition|title=In Iraq, breaking up is hard to do|first=Tanya|last=Goudsouzian|date=March 3, 2021|website=Le Monde diplomatique}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=1829|title=Partitioning: The Way Out of Iraq &#124; Ivan Eland|website=The Independent Institute}}</ref> In addition, Biden and Gelb's proposal also called for Sunni Arabs to receive 20% of all revenues in Iraq since this would be proportional to their share of the total Iraqi population.<ref name = "biden"/> Their proposal also called for an increase in U.S. aid to Iraq but making this increase condition on respect for the rights of women and ethnoreligious minorities, especially but not only in Iraq's Shi'a-majority southern region.<ref name = "biden"/> Finally, Biden and Gelb advocated for the calling of a religional conference under international or U.N. aegis for Iraq's neighbors to guarantee both Iraq's borders and the new federal arrangement that they proposed for Iraq in this article.<ref name = "biden"/>