Partition?

Juan Cole says partitioning Iraq may sound like an exit strategy, but it ignores the realities of the middle east.

Politicians of both parties have increasingly cited the idea of dividing Iraq into three distinct entities -- Shiite, Sunni Arab, and Kurd -- as an option that should be seriously considered. For some Republicans, it has become a way to separate themselves from President Bush's unpopular Iraq policy; for some Democrats, it has been a way to avoid the ``cut and run'' label and suggest an alternative to the current course.

. . . . American politicians who advocate breaking up Iraq, or even just the promotion of ethnically based provinces, fail to appreciate the complexity of the issues they are broaching. A unified Iraq is the cornerstone of the Persian Gulf order established after World War I. If that order is violently renegotiated as a result of the partition of Iraq, it could guarantee decades more of violence, guerrilla wars, and still bloodier conflicts.

Mercury News