If political boundaries were actually drawn where natural cultural, tribal, and geographic tendencies would put them, the world would consist of about four thousand nations. This is true of Europe, Africa, and almost everyplace else. It is conquerers and colonists who smashed odd collections of groups into supernations. Sometimes it goes the other way--most of the Mideast used to just be the Ottoman Empire. But not much more thought went into the carving up than went into the original creation of the empire.

But that's old news, now.

The idea of a three-state Iraq could use some study, but it must be remembered that any solution that leaves even one nation as a hostile terrorist enclave will be a failure. An "Iraq Junior" ruled by Saddam or his spiritual heirs will not be much of an improvement on what we started out with, although at least it would be poorer.

One of the main reasons a Palestinian state is not appealing is that it would immediately become Terror Central, much like Afghanistan once was.