The New York Times: a proposal for ethnic cleansing in Iraq

[Karmadillo]

The article in question is by Leslie Gelb, not the NY Times editorial board.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/gelb-n26.shtml

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Enter the New York Times with a modest proposal for a bloodbath. It advances what it terms a “three-state solution,” based on the partition of Iraq along ethnic and religious lines.

The proposal appeared in a November 25 column by Leslie Gelb, a former editor and senior columnist for the Times. Gelb calls for dividing Iraq between the “Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south.”

<edit>

If Washington were truly to embrace this conception of “natural,” i.e., ethnic states, then it could not but welcome the unification of the Kurdish people, presently divided by the borders separating Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Likewise, it would have to support the unification of the Shiites of southern Iraq with their coreligionists in neighboring Iran, not to mention eastern Saudi Arabia, in one contiguous state. But, in fact, the Bush administration has made it clear it is prepared to use overwhelming military force against anyone daring to attempt such a “natural” form of statecraft.

The proposal to dismember Iraq along ethnic lines is a stark expression of the predatory character of the US intervention. Notwithstanding the Bush administration’s rhetoric about “liberating” Iraq and turning it into a “beacon of democracy” for the Middle East, the conceptions advanced by Gelb demonstrate that Washington has no answers to the complex historical and political problems posed in Iraq. Its only aim is to exploit existing divisions to further the profit interests of the oil conglomerates and other US-based corporations and banks.

more...

[Karmadillo]

1. Here's another view of Gelb's proposal

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EK27Ak05.html

Iraq: Three from one doesn't add up
By Nir Rosen

Iraq is "artificially and fatefully made whole from three distinct ethnic and sectarian communities", says Leslie Gelb in his November 25 New York Time article. Gelb - a former editor and columnist for the Times and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations - advocates dismembering Iraq into three parts, a Kurdish north, a Sunni center and a Shi'ite south, in what he calls the "Three State Solution".

Gelb is no doubt motivated by a sincere desire to extricate the United States from the Iraq briar patch. He led the anti-Vietnam War group during the Lyndon B Johnson and Richard Nixon administrations. He commissioned the Pentagon Papers that exposed the lie behind the Vietnam War and extricated the US from a previous morass. Gelb headed the State Department's Political Military Bureau under former president Jimmy Carter. He was one of the few people to understand the vanity of supporting the Shah of Iran and ignoring Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the Islamic Revolution in 1979. His warnings went unheeded and US arrogance resulted in the hostage crisis. Gelb is thus in a unique position today to only increase the tangles in the Gordian knot tied by policy makers who were clueless about Iraq.

Gelb believes that chopping Iraq up would "allow America to put most of its money and troops where they would do the most good quickly - with the Kurds and Shi'ites". This would force the "troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without oil or revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences". International law prohibits an occupying power from altering the structure of the occupied country, let alone dividing it up. This perhaps is not a good argument because international law was ignored throughout this conflict and continues to be flouted as the occupying powers impose their economic philosophies on Iraq.

Gelb views Sunnis as the "bad guys" American foreign policy always seems to need and seeks to punish them further until they behave, a course of action sure to fulfill his prophecy and indeed make all Sunnis the enemy. What "ambitions" is he referring to? Shouldn't Sunnis be encouraged to participate in the new Iraq? Shouldn't they feel it is theirs as well? Most of the resistance in Iraq is spontaneous and a reaction to the occupation, not part of some Sunni conspiracy. Iraq's Shi'ites are as eager to see American troops leave as the Sunnis are. Even moderate Shi'ite clerics have recently called for an immediate American withdrawal.

more...

[cosmicdot]

2. Leslie Gelb is, also, a Director at the Nixon Center

another neo-con gathering hole ...

along with Henry Kissinger, Maurice Greenberg, Pentagon Advisory Board member and co-hort of Richard Perle - James Schlesinger, all-around good ol'boy Brent Scowcroft, The Carlyle Group's sister private equity investment company the Blackstone Group's Peter Peterson, and others


http://www.nixoncenter.org/boardac.htm

He's, also, a Director with the (James) Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, TX

[bicentennial_baby]

3. I heard this guy on NPR yesterday

The interviewer was like "Don't you think this proposal could also lead to a civil war, causing massive death and chaos?" and he just says "Oh well, that's one weak point in what I'm proposing" Weakness!? I'd call that a little more than a weak point! I'd call it a fucking recipe fopr disaster!

[mrgorth]

4. I think it's a good idea

Iraq was made, like many of england's conquests, in contrast to ethnic lines so that they would be too busy fighting each other to fight the brits. Divide it as suggested and tell each that if there's any issues we start bombing.