Partitioning Iraq

Aziz posts on why partitioning Iraq is a bad idea. One thing he fails to mention is that while the Kurds may want independence, the debate between Sunnis and Shi'ites is over issues of federalism and regional rights. Arab political unity may be a dead letter politically, but it's a dream still very much alive at the grassroots level, and many still blame the West for creating the multitude of states in the region today. A popular theory in the region is that the United States and Israel want to keep Iraq weak by dividing it. Iraq today and the Balkans of the 1990's may be superficially similiar, but beneath the surface the situation has crucial differences. In any case, a partition isn't just something outside powers can impose at some latter-day Potsdam Conference.