Iraq Partitioned
Iraq is a divided country. Only the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was capable, at obviously great cost to the Kurdish agitators and others who chafed under his rule, to maintain a semblance of law and order. It was Saddam who kept the majority Shia population at a disadvantage under the minority Sunni, the sect he represented, all the while ruling the Islamic country as a secular one, embracing and marginally entitling other religions and ethnics within the country; Christians and Jews among them.The U.S. military and its "coalition of the willing" are discovering belatedly, as have so many others with similar aspirations to conquer and impose their own version of civil democracy or whatever the flavour of rule at the time expressed, that an alien-sourced, orderly, rule-abiding, conventional military observing normal parameters of military activities is no match for the no-holds-barred, passionately furious dedication of an insurgent rag-tag militia determined to take back their own.
Not only have the foreign-based Muslims coming to the aid of their beleaguered Iraqi brethren against the aggression of the infidels wrought havoc in the best-laid, but incomprehensibly-inadequate plans of the Western invaders, but in the process their uncompromising presence in the Islamic country has unleashed a deadly onslaught of sectarian violence where Sunni and Shia citizen-militias hunt down and murder countless of their own under the very noses of the invaders.
It should seem clear to most intelligent observers that there will be no Western-oriented "success" as a result of this ill-timed, ill-prepared, and stubbornly-pursued invasion of a country as alien to the culture, values, history and traditions of the west as can possibly be imagined. The country, once held together by sheer force of cleverly-applied state terror is ready to collapse.
Once Marshall Tito died, the coalition he held together despite aeons-old hostilities of one group against another within the borders of Yugoslavia collapsed, and civil war gave way to separate borders, separate identities. India and an emerging Pakistan agreed in the wake of dreadful bloodshed and religious violence to separate, and Pakistan came into existence. India helped Bangladesh to come into existence through a timely separation from a reluctant Pakistan.
The Soviet Union fell apart under the burden of its own impossible vision of a greater union of member-countries under the iron rule of Communism, held together by a fierce determination to maintain a vast geographical ruling body, determined to keep traditional geographic enemies from each others' throats, while reaping economic benefit and status as one of two world powers for Russia.
None of these upheavals have been accomplished amicably, with neighbourly intent to remain helpful to one another. All of these separations were resisted with the passion of determination to avoid the death-knell of a great but artificially-imposed geographic inclusion to fulfil the grand ambitions of a singularly hubristic leader, or a nation that sought to increase its hegemony.
It's time that the world recognizes the requirement to abandon the geographic boundaries that now describe Iraq. Reconciliation between the various religious and cultural elements that make up the current borders seems impossible. Co-operation between the various elements has been attempted, but has been foiled at every step. The good intentions might have been there to begin with but the passions of ethnicity, sectarianism and old rivalries and conquests cannot be quenched.
In the north of the country the Kurds have fairly well established their longed-for sovereignist Kurdistan (and would love to enlarge it to include a nice bit of Kurd-inhabited Turkey). It behaves as an independent state, with its own elected government, system of laws, army and flag. It is nicely endowed with natural resources that the Sunni-ruled Iraq under Saddam valued for the oil riches it bestowed upon them. In a semi-official, but non-binding vote, the majority has voted for independence.
In the Shia-dominated south of the country governance is separate from that of Baghdad. The population is informed by Shi'ite religious parties which have adopted and enforce Iranian-style Islamic Sharia law. There are well armed militias loyal to their various Shia parties, ready to enforce any edicts propounded by their Ayatollas. They too are well resourced with oil revenues.
The new post-invasion Iraqi constitution brought forward and sanctified by the new coalition government, voted in overwhelmingly by the country's citizens in a democratic vote, ceded the powers of taxation to the regions. Those same regions are permitted under law to establish their own armies, and they have much control over their own oil resources. Regional laws are favoured above those of the country.
The Sunni minority will no longer, and would not in any event, under any manner of conclusion of the current instability and violence, have first word. Their irreconcilable hatred for the Shia minority will never be satisfied, and it's time a physical separation was brought to bear to ensure no further continuance of the current violence. The Sunnis will be out of luck, unless future oil exploration discovers resources in a region they will govern, but there is always the possibility that in the interests of living side by side in peace, the other two may be willing to grant a portion of their revenues to the Sunni region.
With a mutual agreement to secede from the ungovernable union, and a determination to forge their own independent regions and recognize them finally as separate and distinct, ready to be proclaimed as sovereign countries with their own rights and freedoms, and a willingness to live in some kind of helpful harmony as neighbours the solution to the current disaster-in-the-waiting is all but assured.
It's obviously time for negotiations leading to general agreement and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country to enable the indigent population to resolve their own problems.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, October 29, 2006
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