IT'S ALREADY BROKE

BREAK UP IRAQ NOW! (RALPH PETERS, July 10, 2003, NY Post)

Speaking of Iraq as a single, integrated country is a form of lying. Its borders were drawn by grasping European diplomats almost a century ago, with no regard for the wishes - or rivalries - of the local populations.

Today, the Iraq we're trying to herd back together consists of three distinct nations caged under a single, bloodstained flag. Our problems are with only one of those nations, the Sunni Arab minority west and north of Baghdad. [...]

The break-up of Iraq should proceed in two stages.

First, we should provisionally divide the country into a federation of three states, giving the Sunni Arabs one last chance to embrace reform.

* One state would encompass the Shi'ite region in the south, encompassing all of the southern oil fields.

* The second would be an expanded Kurdistan, including historically Kurdish Kirkuk and Mosul, as well as Iraq's northern oil fields.

* The third would be a rump Sunni Arab state sandwiched between the other two.

* Baghdad would become an autonomous district.

An independent Kurdistan has been inevitable all along, but the Sunni are probably going to have to undertake a forced migration, with the long-oppressed Shiites taking over the rest of the country. This will achieve an over-thorough and too lethal, but effective, de-Baathafication. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 11, 2003 7:31 PM