Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson unveiled his plan for Iraq during his announcement of his presidential candidacy. The Blogger News Network reports Thompson "laid out what he called his three part plan for getting the U.S. troops out of Iraq sooner rather than later." BNN writer Jason Easley says two of the three parts "are very interesting" ...
The first part is that, “The Iraqi government should vote on whether they want us there. If they do, we have greater world standing to be there. If not, that certainly sends a strong message upon which we can base our next move.”
There's nothing interesting or original about that - the Iraq government has already said it wants us there.
The second part is focuses on the development of local governments. “As do here in America, we should work with Iraqi leaders to form governments in 18 self-governing provinces that would operate under a national government. What this will do is give Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds their own pieces of Iraq – their own land and their own say in how it is run.”
America has been helping form local democratically-elected governments in cities and towns across Iraq ever since shortly after Saddam skedaddled outta Baghdad. The Kurds already have their own territory and government - Northern Iraq - and as online journalist Michael Totten reported recently, it's doing just fine.
Easley's post on Thompson's plan for Iraq continues...
Part three of his plan is the most unoriginal. “We should encourage the Iraqi government to give every Iraqi a stake in the nation’s rich oil reserves. Oil revenues should be divided in thirds among the national government, the provincial governments and individual Iraq citizens. This will create great incentive for all Iraqis to protect their oil reserves, while ensuring that their federal and provincial governments govern fairly. And it will create wealth amongst all the people, inspiring entrepreneurship and economic growth.”
Actually, while part three isn't original with Thompson - the proposal has been suggested by various people for years - Thompson's smart to endorse it because it's a good idea. Oh, and the Iraqi government recently committed to doing it - in fact, it is part of the Iraqi government's piece of the new joint strategy in Iraq that the American media has oversimplified to a simple numbers game it calls "the surge."
In short, Thompson proposed a three-part plan that is already being implemented.
Comment Preview