Picture: Map of Iraq with major cities and bordering countries.
Well, this was in response to a latest Washington Post story ‘‘Nonpartisan Group Calls for Three-State Split in Iraq” . It proposes that Iraq be split into three autonomous regions that will share natural resources. For the layperson Iraqi population is divided into many ethnic groups but the largest of them are:
Ethnic Divisions–Arabs (about 70% of the population, all of them Muslims)
Kurds (About 20-22% of the population, most of them Muslims, who mostly live in the Northern parts of Iraq and also have big Kurdish population in neighboring countries; Syria, Iran, Turkey, See the map.)
Religious Divisions–To make the jumble of diversity more confusing Iraqis are religiously divided as well. Almost 97% of them are Muslims. But Islam is divided in two warring groups; Shiite Muslims (about 60-65%) and Sunni Muslims (about 32-37%). Most Shiite Muslims live in the Southern parts of Iran though. Whenever I notice this crazy mixture the Balkan states ( especially former Yugoslavia) in Europe come to my mind. But that’s a different story anyway. Personally, I have always supported the idea of creating. at least 3 autonomous regions in Iraq. And in this regard following are my comments to Washington Post story:
Indeed this solution must have been considered in the beginning and even before the beginning of this wishful war to ”free Iraq”. What Iraq has always needed in the first place is freedom from itself.
Different ethnicities that inhabit Iraq remain bitterly opposed to each other on countless levels. They must exist independently of each other. This will not only give them better protection from ghoulish violence, security and freedom but also make them ultimately responsible for their own destiny that they ought to build themselves.
I think it is time we get past calling Iraq war a mistake because it is a well established fact anyhow. Now time is to move on and look for unanimous enduring solutions for Iraqis.
It is such sad state of affairs that people are still confined to their own narrow interests; political or ideological. As a result no sincere action is being taken. There are two shallow opinion blocs on Iraq war. One wants to continue drubbing Republicans/Conservatives for political gains while not having any sincerity towards fixing Iraq’s chaos. The other bloc- finding itself badly mired in Iraq- wants to RUN AWAY as soon as possible,especially as war in Iraq offers no political mileage at home (USA) anymore and body bags are coming back wrapped in American flags.
In reality, Iraq has become another Vietnam, only it can’t be left alone by convenient military evacuation. So it’s time that all people/politicians of good intentions in America and international community stop the blame games and strive for lasting solutions.
Creating autonomous three regions sounds like a good idea to begin with. After that the issue of fair sharing of Oil revenues can be tackled.
Great post !
The notion of making 3 countries out of Iraq is idea whose time has come. Under Saddam, Iraq was in unstable equilibrium. Now that Saddam is gone, it is in chaos.
It is clearly in the best interests of the Iraqi people to separate the warring factions. I think that we need to have faith in their collective ability to recognise that fact until it is proven otherwise.
Three distinct cultures can be clearly identified. There are many issues to be resolved before we actually carry out the separation.It would be possible to establish borders which would result in fair sharing the oil reserves
We need to get the appropriate people together to address the multiple issues involved. We need a coordinator(s) to oversee the discussions and keep things on tract. Senators Biden(D) and Brownback(R) have advocated splitting Iraq and are the logical choice to obtain bipartison support for the project.