Alan Schlesinger on War & Peace

Iraq needs a three-state alternative on the table

LIEBERMAN: I'm not prepared to give up on Iraq and I'm not prepared to fail. Ned Lamont has embraced a proposal for withdrawal by July 2007. To me, that's not a plan for success, that's retreat and a recipe for disaster, and it will deeply hurt the American people.

LAMONT: Joe Lieberman & George Bush's stay-the-course strategy - that's the recipe for failure.

SCHLESINGER: What we have in Iraq is not a military problem, but political problem. The Pentagon has adopted my position-to put a tri-state alternative on the table. With self-government for the Sunnis, the Shias, and the Kurds, with a national council to distribute the oil wealth. I believe you'd then see sectarian violence go down to a minimum; the insurgency from Iran and other countries could be controlled; and our troops could exit in a staged withdrawal naturally, because there'd be peace there.

50% of troops out of Iraq by Nov. 2007