A Rational Alternative

Every rational and honest person not warped by blind faith agrees that Bush's escalation is a delusional disaster in the making but what other solutions are being offered? Can Iraq, as broken as it is be stabilized? Are the Iraqis capable or willing?

Apparently they are and have been working together on a plan for a future. They have even been working togather across ethnic lines and as Medea Benjamin writes, peace is possible but the US seems to be against the idea. Here are 10 points for Iraqi reconcilation and peace agreed on by represntatives of all factions in Iraq:

1. End the occupation of Iraq.
2. Create a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops that is synchronized with the implementation of the Iraq reconciliation plan.
3. Disband the militias created after the occupation.
4. Revise Bremer's Orders and allow the Iraqis to rebuild their army.
5. Rewrite the Iraqi Constitution.
6. Keep Iraq as one state and do not partition into multiple states.
7. Begin the promised reconstruction of Iraq. Employ Iraqis and not foreign workers or contractors.
8. Acknowledge Iraqis' right to resist the U.S. occupation, negotiate with the resistance, and give amnesty to Iraqis resisting the occupation.
9. Investigate all the crimes that were committed by the new Iraqi Government and by the occupation forces in Iraq.
10. Make a fair distribution of oil income and natural resources.