Reply #10: Nope. In fact, the #s are a huge part of the ongoing problem [View All]

[Inland]

Why nobody looks at Lebanon for the way Iraq is going is beyond me.

The Lebanese Civil War came about because Lebanon didn't run a pure democracy--instead, there was an agreement by which certain posts would be controlled by different constituencies, based in part on the census and in part on economic power.

That civil war dribbled on as the constituent groups finally came up with something that redistributed power. But you can see why nobody can agree on a new census.

The lesson for Iraq would be that the constituent groups of Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Turkmen and a couple of others have to expressly recognize protections for one another and institutionalize representation of groups as groups in the government. Heck, we do that informally in the Chicago area--an african american, an irishman and a pole divvy up the top executive jobs, and soon the pole's job will go to a hispanic. It gives confidence in the government.