LAT: Shia Embrace Partitioning of Iraq

[DeepModem Mom]

Shia Embrace Partitioning of Iraq
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
August 8, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- They have a new constitution, a new government and a new military. But faced with incessant sectarian bloodshed, Iraqis for the first time have begun openly discussing whether the only way to stop the violence is to remake the country they have just built.

Leaders of Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim political bloc have begun aggressively promoting a radical plan to partition the country as a way of separating the warring sects. Some Iraqis are even talking about dividing the capital, with the Tigris River as a kind of Berlin Wall.

Shiites have long advocated some sort of autonomy in the south on par with the Kurds' 15-year-old enclave in the north, with its own defense forces and control over oil exploration. And the new constitution does allow provinces to team up into federal regions. But the latest effort, promulgated by Cabinet ministers, clerics and columnists, marks the first time they've advocated regional partition as a way of stemming violence.

"Federalism will cut off all parts of the country that are incubating terrorism from those that are upgrading and improving," said Khudair Khuzaie, the Shiite education minister. "We will do it just like Kurdistan. We will put soldiers along the frontiers."

The growing clamor for partition illustrates how dire Iraq's security, economic and political problems have come to seem to many Iraqis: Until recently, Iraqis shunned the idea of redrawing the 8 1/2-decade-old map of Iraq as seditious....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-partition9aug09,0,2716106.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[BushOut06]

1. Iraq's boundaries are artificial anyways

How do the Sunnis feel about this? This might actually work, the way it did with Bosnia, Croatia, etc.

[Yupster]

8. It's always been a good plan for the

Shi-ites and Kurds.

The oil is in the north and the south.

That leaves the Sunnis with crap, so they're the ones who wouldn't go for it.

Of course another possible endgame is Civil War where the Sunnis get massacred and chased into Syria solving that problem for them.

[AngryAmish]

9. They get to live where they do now

What right does anyone have to oil revenues from where they do not live? Oil rich countries are rarely not aurocracies. The sunni would be better off without oil money. They live in fear of pograms every day. They can live in their ancestral areas and make a living the way they always did before oil was discovered.

[yellowcanine]

14. Not good for the Kurds when Turkey invades and occupies "Kurdistan"

The Turks will not allow an independent Kurdistan on their border.

[fujiyama]

2. Well partitions rarely ever go smoothly

I'd expect even more bloodshed and chaos if this is enacted. But in the long run...this may work out better with a weak and ineffective central government and military.

The country is a fuckin mess (like that needed to be said). Now what? Hey Loserman? Bush? And other ass hats that supported this? What now? Whether we stay or go, the real big winner here will ultimately be Iran and Hezbollah. Thanks you fucktard neocons.

And it's interesting that you NEVER hear anything about the few Christians in Iraq by the neocons or any other RWer for that matter, who were not treated great under Saddam but were better off than the theocracy that it has now.

[daleo]

3. Maybe Iran will end up getting one third of Iraq

And the chimp's failure will be complete.

[reprobate]

10. Iran already has at least a third of Iraq de facto.

Iran now controls the Shia majority in Iraq.

[bemildred]

12. Greater Shi'iastan is coming together nicely. nt

[Stardust]

4. deleted

[Zynx]

5. Of course they do. They have all the oil.

All the major Iraqi oil reservers other than Kirkiuk are in overwhelmingly Shi'a territory.

[AlamoDemoc]

6. The Idea Iraq would want separate

The Idea Iraq would want separate from Shia and Sunni is a failure by the United Stated occupation.

[evox]

7. I doubt that'll happen

The only way Iraq's problem would be resolved is if the U.S. left Iraq.

[The2ndWheel]

11. Only after a war to figure out borders

can you end up with a state. There would be no America if that didn't happen more than a few times.

[sabra]

13. kick

:kick:

[Rowdyboy]

15. Kicked and recommended.....Just need one more vote

[GeorgeGist]

16. If nothing else...

attempting this will certify the Iraq civil war.