Splitting Iraq into 3 Autonomous Provinces. "The solution"?

Question

The Iraqi parliment is now proposing to split Iraq into provinces, it has been very succesful for 15 years in Iraqi Kurdistan. No trouble there at all.
Shiite in the South
Sunny in Centre
Kurds In the North

Answer 1

A Federal system could work but the very genuine fears of all three groups would have to be addressed. The group who fear the split most are the Sunni as they feel that the benefits of oil wealth will pass them by. As you say the Kurds in the North have shown that a semi-autonomous state can work and the others should be looking at this as a model for regions overseen by a Federal government.

Answer 2

I think this would have made a lot more sense about two years ago when the insurgency was still at a low ebb. It is hard to say what effect it might have now. One of the issues in developing security forces has been that the Iraqi's who are trained as police or military tend to want to work in their regions, or regions which are along their own sectarian lines. There have been some problems with police and soldiers refusing to work in certain areas, and Biden's plan could help this. Another problem is infiltration of Iraqi security forces by insurgents. It's unclear if the provincial proposal by Biden would have a positive effect on this, but it could be that an insurgency within a group is more easily identified if that group is all sunni or all shia. The bottom line is that this must be done by the Iraqi government at this point and there are provisions in their constitution which would allow for it. In fact, they have just recently passed a law which allows any state in Iraq (there are currently some 20+ of them) can choose to succeed from the central authority and govern themselves. If civil war does break out in ernest, Kurds may do just that in the north. All in all, there are no happy solutions here.

Answer 3

Yes. Worked very well in Israel and Palestine too. Not to mention Pakistan and India and Bangladesh. Tibet and China also have been able to function very peacefully under their new borders.
But enough of the sarcasm... I applaud the Iragi government for taking whatever steps necessary to bring about a lasting peace in the region, but I don't think these kind of separatist ideals are positive for the life-blood of the country.

Answer 4

Making three separate federal states under a national government is the solution to the crisis in the Iraqi government. The three groups must be given autonomy to govern themselves but must adhere to the laws of the central government.

Answer 5

Its the only way to go, otherwise they will finish each other off.
On the other hand, the opposition to the division, as well as the fact that certain regions may be left with vast resources and others with none, may lead to civil wars, and later wars between the new states. Its a fine kettle of fish.

Answer 6

It is a possible solution, but it will be flawed. In each of those newly created areas there are people belonging to the other ethnic groups. This will be like in ex-Yugoslavia, where Muslims lived in Serb areas and so forth. Fixing the error we have committed in Iraq is close to impossible. We should have never gone there. All the suffering and all the blood spilled is the fault of the Bush junta. Their greed for oil has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and will continue to cost more.

I hope they will burn in hell for eternity.

Answer 7

Not a bad idea, but wont help in the long term without phisical barriers. What you are proposing is more or less make the actual divisions official, big change

Answer 8

Three "states" under the federal government. Much better than the alternative--which appears to be civil war.

Answer 9

Let the silly sods get on with killing each other - who gives a rats ars* anyway - these people are not worth the death of one British mother's son/daughter.

Answer 10

I don't know if it will work or not. Extremist rogues will be there to cause trouble no matter if they divide the country or not.