Damascus and Tehran's ties to the extremists at both ends of the Sunni and Shiite political spectrum are responsible for the destructive collision course they are on not just in Iraq, but Palestine. Let's not forget who Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas spoke to by phone, to explore ways of ending the Palestinian conflict because of the Gaza "madness." Exiled Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal, who is living in Damascus. Iran and Syria are key players to the elusive peaceful puzzle ─ partition. America has to stop paying tribute to American soldiers in Iraq as their death tolls hit 3,000 and most recently 3,500 and the next milestones of death. It is time for Congress to come up with a realistic timeline and plan ─ partition. All other plans, military and political, have failed. What other option is there? The solution to peace in the Middle East, starting in Iraq and Palestine is partition.

The five-year plan for Iraq adopted by the leaders of the 50 countries that gathered in Egypt in May 2007, aimed at rescuing war-ravaged Iraq from chaos and bankrupcy will, like the rest of the  plans, fail because the main aim of the so-called "International  Compact" is to rebuild a unified federal Iraq. The only part of the plan  that has any hope of survival is the oil revenue-sharing plan ─ but in a partitioned Iraq. Setting withdrawal plans without a partition plan is  another mistake future generations will pay for ─ emotionally, politically and financially.