Yay Joe Biden!

For years Joe Biden has been a lone voice of reason in politics - when everyone else was pandering to a bloodthirsty constituency, Biden was the only one putting forth a reasonable plan in Iraq. Let them govern themselves, he was saying back in 2004, the Shiites and Sunnis and Kurds, let them each have their own independent states. That part of the world is more loyal to local tribes of their own race - a sweeping democracy in the hands of a powerful federal government is completely foreign, and therefore suspicious, to them. We've already allowed the Kurds in the north to break away to form a land called Kurdistan, and except for the fact that Turkey won't allow its Kurd population to join them, it's been a peaceful transition. This is a large part of what's ailing Afghanistan also, as local warlords rise up against an American-imposed federal government. The America-allied leader of Pakistan just had to resign for the same reasons. Even here in the United States the prevailing idea was individual states for a hundred years before the end of the Civil War started the thinking that we were one country. That kind of thinking doesn't appeal to people in the Middle East - instead of us imposing what we think is best for them like some condescending parent, why not let the people choose what kind of government they want. Biden is an excellent choice for vice president to help heal global perceptions of America.