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Article: Biden calls for 3-way division of Iraq: he said partitioning the country would defuse tensions. The White House disagreed.(Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.)
- Article from:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA)
- Article date:
- May 2, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Philadelphia Inquirer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Chris Mondics and Andy Maykuth
May 2--While the idea of carving up Iraq into regions controlled by local ethnic and religious groups has been around for a while, there has always been the fear it would trigger a surge of sectarian violence leading to civil war. But in proposing just such a partition plan yesterday, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.) stated bluntly that to a disturbing degree, Iraq was already there. Competing ethnic and religious groups are armed for battle, sectarian violence is raging, and ethnic cleansing is under way, he said. "The sectarian genie is out of the bottle," Biden said. "Ethnic militias increasingly are the ...