Oct. 2, 2007 (LPAC)--A resolution was passed by the Senate last Wednesday to establish a federalist system with regional, sectarian-based governments. The bipartisan resolution, co-sponsored by Delaware Senator Joe Biden (D) and Montana's Sam Brownback, (R) was the brain-child of Council on Foreign Relations "president emeritus" Leslie Gelb, according to coverage in the San Jose Mercury News. It garnered a significant 75-23 vote, indicating that many in the Senate had not learned their lessons from American history.

Joining in opposition to colonialist aggression, after years of occupation by the Ottoman and British Empires, former enemies, forces loyal to radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on the one side, and Sunni forces represented by the Iraqi Accordance Front on the other, joined in denouncing the resolution. A statement, signed by "pre-eminent religious Shiite Muslim parties and the main Sunni Arab bloc" reads in part, "The Congress adopted this proposal based on an incorrect reading and unrealistic estimations of the history, present and future of Iraq,... It represents a dangerous precedent to establishing the nature of the relationship between Iraq and the USA...and shows the Congress as if it were planning for a long-term occupation by their country's troops."