Tommy Thompson has 2 spectacularly stupid plans for Iraq

Joining the growing ranks of Republicans who would allow the Iraqi prime minister to decide American foreign policy, Tommy Thompson thinks Iraqi voters, (rather than American ones) should decide on the fate of the U.S. military deployment:

MR. BLITZER: All right. Let me bring in Governor Thompson. Go ahead, same question to you. If General Petraeus says it’s not working in September, what should the U.S. do then?

MR. THOMPSON: The first thing the president should do is demand the al-Maliki government to vote as to whether or not they want the United States to stay in Iraq. We’ve been there four years. Give the government the responsibility of voting. If they vote yes, how are they going to help us win this war? And if they vote no, we should redeploy our forces outside.

Secondly, there are 18 territories in Iraq, geographically defined. Those 18 territories, just like 50 states in America, should elect their state leaders. And if they do so, the Shi’ites will elect Shi’ites, Sunnis will elect Sunnis, Kurds will elect Kurds. And you know something? People will go to those particular territories and you get rid of the civil war, internecine.

Mr Thompson might want to read up on the breakup of India and Pakistan, not to mention Yugoslavia. A plan that calls for the voluntary ethnic-cleansing of Iraq would be a disaster. Every place it's happened has seen brutal violence.