[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

Since we decided to stop attacking Fallujah, it's turned into a theocracy. This should come as no surprise to anyone. I don't think that crushing the city would have been productive either; you'd have gotten entirely different problems.

Maybe it's worth allowing the city to become an independent state in order to minimize the risk of Sunni unrest. Mostly it shows how many unpalatable alternatives we have in Iraq.

Comments

[totient]

The problem with partitioning Iraq is that if we do, the Kurds will agitate (and reasonably so) for a greater Kurdistan, which will annoy the Turks (who we care about), the Syrians (who we don't), the Iranians (who we should) and possibly also the Russians. The Syrians could probably be bought off by giving them bits of Iraq. It's possible that the Turks could be bought off by giving them bits of Syria, but it's not very likely. Buying off Iran would involve giving them -- well, giving them Fallujah, which might not actually be such a bad idea, since the alternative is preventing them from taking it. I don't know what to do about the Russians.

Damn the British and their cursed maps.

[bryant]

Yep! Partitioning is another bad solution. The Turks, of course, are mostly worried about losing bits of Turkey.

I carefully don't pretend to have a good solution. I had a good solution two years ago, but it involved not invading Iraq.