Juan Cole: Possible Partition of Iraq

[Inland]

http://juancole.com/
A renewed debate on the possible partition of Iraq is emerging.

Let's get one thing out of the way. As for letting a civil war rage, deliberately, I don't understand. Everyone is (rightly) complaining about world inaction on the genocide in the Sudan. But here you want to provoke a genocide (maybe a million dead and 5 million displaced) and have troops in the region and not intervene? Doesn't that make you worse than Khartoum? It is despicable. And, remember that such a war a) would not stay inside Iraq--it would become regional; and b) a full-scale war in the Persian Gulf region will lead to a big increase in your gasoline prices (as in, you ain't seen nuttin' yet).

Personally, I am against breaking up Iraq. I don't think it is more unworkable than Nigeria or Lebanon. And, the consequences are unforeseeable and potentially very, very dangerous.

I do, however, believe that the tendencies toward separatism must be recognized and managed.

I say that we make 5 superprovinces: Deep South, Middle Euphrates, Baghdad, Sunnistan, and Kurdistan, along with two smaller ethnic enclaves, of Turkomanistan and Chaldeanistan in the north.
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[Jack Rabbit]

1. Professor Cole has a good sounding idea

Of course, like any other ideas along this line, if you can't sell it to the Iraqis, it's a non-starter.