Federalism Plan Dead, Says Iraqi Official

[ECH1969]

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament said Tuesday that a controversial plan to partition the country into three autonomous regions is politically dead.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said in an interview that legislation to implement a concept known as federalism, which threatened to collapse the country's fragile multi-sect government, would likely be postponed indefinitely after a meeting of political leaders on Wednesday.

The federalism plan would create a Shiite region in southern Iraq much like the autonomous zone in the north controlled by the Kurds. Sunnis have generally opposed the plan, on grounds that it would leave them only with vast swaths of desert in the country's middle, devoid of the oil reserves in the other regions.

The constitution that Iraq adopted last fall allows for a form of federalism. Sunni parties supported the charter only reluctantly and joined the current government on condition of a resumption of federalism discussions, in which they hoped to kill the concept.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201549.html

[sofa king]

1. "A concept known as federalism."

Hmm. Where have I heard that term before?

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it a little spooky to see the Washington Post talk about the concept as if it is alien and unfamiliar?

[Bozita]

2. kinda sounds like we hate them for their new-found freedoms

[Kagemusha]

3. Actually this is the only hope that country has. It was looking bad.

If the Shiites split down the middle on this it'd have completely destroyed the central government and introduced generalized factional fighting among the Shiites themselves, giving Sunni insurgents even greater opportunity to mess the place up.

Not that this offers hope but, it ends an unfolding unmitigated disaster.

[Miss Chybil]

4. I don't understand why they can't have three states under a federal

flag. Why wouldn't that work?

[Kagemusha]

5. Because then the central government controls NOTHING, for one

The central government won't have any money, for two.

And the Sunni state won't have any money either, for three. So why they should spend scarce resources on construction instead of on a more cost-efficient insurgency will escape many of them.

[Miss Chybil]

6. Is "cost-efficient insurgency" a sarcastic remark?

It's hard to tell in writing. What do you think they should do?

[Kagemusha]

10. Um no it's not sarcastic. IED's are cheap. Bridges aren't.

It's a lot cheaper to blow a bridge up than to build one. If these people take it upon themselves to decide fighting the Shiites and reclaiming oil-rich areas by force is more cost-effective than trying to build bridges then, I may not agree with it, but it's not entirely irrational either (though obviously carrying a real risk of getting absolutely nothing except death and destruction). I wouldn't suggest it if I hadn't heard repeatedly that this is indeed the actual thinking of Sunni guerilla leaders.

I have no sympathy for it or have alternate suggestions for them (since I don't think the Shiites will give them anything if they just ask nicely - they hate Saddam too much to give freebies to those who benefited from him) but well, I believe in dealing with facts as you find them, not the world as you wish it would be. Truth over truthiness. And the fact is, the Sunnis can maintain a violent insurgency for a lot longer than sustain a full-bore civil construction agenda.

[Miss Chybil]

12. "getting absolutely nothing except death and destruction"

That doesn't sound very cost effective to me, but rationality and rage rarely go hand in hand.

[Kagemusha]

13. That... is if they lose, or get a stalemate.

If they win, unlikely as that might be at this point given how much Bush cares about preventing such a victory, it's a different story.

[Charlie Brown]

7. I've heard the distribution of wealth and resources is a problem

The Sunnis have opposed the Federal plan because the autonomous Shi-ite and Kurdish states would have the oil-rich land, leaving them economically bereft. They feel Sunnis would be better off with a share of the oil revenue.

[Miss Chybil]

8. That's why I'm thinking a federal system could redistribute the wealth a

bit. That won't work?

[Auntie Bush]

9. That's what I've been advocating.

Kind of like we have in the USA. Separate states with their own laws all controlled by a central government to take in and dole out the money.

[Kagemusha]

11. Could, but the proposal that existed was likely to result in the opposite

that is, two super-provinces (one Kurdish one Shiite) hogging almost all oil revenue for themselves and the federal government having not enough money for its own operations let alone redistribution.