Joe Biden has a cunning plan for victory in Iraq. He also avers that "Everything I'm proposing is already in Iraq's constitution." He goes on to explain how he would organize things in Iraq, as if we had the power to dictate to the Iraqis. We have been careful and gone to great lengths to let them decide for themselves about the details of their democracy.

My plan would guarantee the Sunnis a proportionate share of oil revenue. It would tie economic aid to the protection of minorities' and women's rights. It would require a regional non-aggression pact. And it would allow us to responsibly withdraw most U.S. forces from Iraq by 2008 — enough time for a settlement to take hold.

What I'm proposing is not partition; in fact, it might be the only way to prevent partition. Violence between the Shiites and Sunnis has surpassed the insurgency as the main security threat. Ethnic militias increasingly are the law in Iraq. They have infiltrated the official security forces. Sectarian cleansing has begun in mixed areas, where tens of thousands of Iraqis have been fleeing their homes in recent weeks.

The only way to hold Iraq together and create conditions for our troops to responsibly withdraw is to give Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds room to breathe in their own regions.

Funny, that sounds like partition to me and a prescription for civil war. What we're doing is aimed at forcing them to engage in politics and work out the tough questions and see for themselves why they must control these militias. The Iraqis must do that, not us. Biden's plan sounds like papering over the sectarian tensions so that we can pull out, as in Vietnam, knowing that when things go South, the Congress will never authorize going back.