Think the Unthinkable: Partition Iraq

[Alex88]

"It just gets worse and worse for the Bush administration. In the U.S. war on terror, allegations have surfaced that the policies of “torture light” and sexual humiliation of prisoners were widespread around the world and originated from high levels in the administration. Suspicious plea bargaining—normally used to give leniency to lower-level offenders to get their help in implicating higher-level people—has been used with an enlisted interrogator at Abu Ghraib prison in return for his testimony that higher-ups knew nothing of the prison abuse there. The insurgency goes on unabated and has finally begun to cut into the president’s poll numbers. The president of the Iraqi Governing Council has been assassinated. Is there a way out of the quagmire for the administration? Yes, but not the one it’s banking on."

"Iraqi self-determination would probably result in the partitioning of Iraq or at least the creation of a loose confederation in which the Kurds, Sunni and Shia would autonomously govern their own affairs. Had the Clinton administration allowed the partitioning of multi-ethnic Bosnia, the United States and other nations would probably not be saddled with the task of keeping the peace in this continuing tinderbox nine years after the Dayton Accords were signed. If the peacekeepers withdrew today, the fighting among Bosnia’s ethnic groups would probably resume.

By adopting self-determination for Iraqis, the administration would have to give up its fantasy that the artificial state of Iraq should be whole and democratic in the western sense. Self-determination would deal with the root causes of the insurgency and give the guerrilla groups some incentive to stop fighting and to refrain from causing a civil war."

"If the United States withdrew its forces and each group was allowed to govern itself in its own country or autonomous region, the incentives for violence against the foreign invader and against other Iraqi groups would rapidly decline. The Sunnis would no longer fight the invader or be apprehensive about paybacks from the Shia. The Kurds would keep the autonomy that they have had for more than a decade. Al-Sadr could no longer justify his violence in the name of repelling the crusading invaders and might be forced to negotiate with the revered Ayatollah al-Sistani for a position in any government serving Shia areas."

http://www.antiwar.com/eland/

[Mr.Green93]

1. Partition America

[Bridget Burke]

2. "Partition" is an old tool of departing colonialists.

Have the Iraqi masses demanded partition? Are the boundaries really that neat?

Or will old white men in a small room thousands of miles from Baghdad draw the lines on the map? Smaller, weaker countries are easier to dominate. And--since each section will include minorities who "belong" in the other sections no matter how long they've lived there--clashes will be guaranteed. Thus, the neo-colonialists can look down on the "savages".

It's called "divide & conquer" & it's not new.

[Alex88]

4. The writer of the piece said "If the United States withdrew its forces

and each group was allowed to govern itself in its own country or autonomous region..." They, not the US and old white men etc., would be drawing up the borders. The title of the column, however, should have been along the lines of "...Letting Iraq partion.

Force is what has been keeping Iraq together. The Turks ruled the Arab world for centuries and then the British and French took over around 1917, drew up borders to serve their imperial aims and installed puppet regimes within those borders. The French left Syria and Lebanon and the US has become the main colonial power in the region.

This is the heart of US-Arab tensions and the cause of the extremism there. The Arab world has yet to be liberated after centuries of foreign domination.

[dumpster_baby]

3. forced combining of diverse factions is a neoliberal/colonialist tactic

Iraq SHOULD be split up. As should the USA, and most other countries. When a country is more homogenous, it is harder for the ruling elite to control the country.

[JPZenger]

5. Iraq Could Function Better in 3 pieces

I did not understand why the Administration was so quick to say that Iraq would never be divided. The division into 3 countries should still be an option, if the 3 groups cannot function together.

One of the reasons why the U.S. said that Iraq must remain one country is because the Turks opposed an independent Kurdish state. They are afraid that the Kurds in Turkey will also want their own state, or to join the new Kurdish state in Iraq.

[bemildred]

6. Why don't we let the Iraqis decide how they want to handle it? nt