I like your "soft landing" theory, and think that's probably a good direction to go. I'm not as pessimistic about Iraqis and democracy as you are, but it's something they'll have to work into.

I don't think enough has been done with the problem of distributing oil resources over there, which has been the main showstopper for most "federal" concepts. A Federal Iraq would probably have to have the central government handling not only defense, but oil revenues, and distributing them evenly enough to make everyone happy. That's not free market, as such, but as you point out, we're dealing with different cultures, and the oil system over there is already nationalized.

I have long supported an "Alaska-style" method of spreading oil wealth in the form of profit payments directly to citizens in Iraq. If I had been in charge, that would have been set up as one of the first things. You can bet that the sabotage would have been a lot less of a problem.

I like your phrasing of Islam "having a seat at the table." This is a different state of things than the radical desire to have Islam run everything, and I believe that "a seat at the table" can be compatible with a level of political freedom fairly close to the Western model. Remember that England had Parliaments and a high level of democracy for many years while they still had an official state Church.

If you remember Iraq's arguments over a constitution, the role of Islam was one major issue. In a poll taken in late 2003, 36 percent of Iraqis interviewed preferred a "British-American" style of government. 26 percent said "Islamic rule, but tempered to modern ideals of justice and punishment." Only 6 percent wanted full Islamic rule with the mullahs in charge. I think "seat at the table" is just what they're looking for.

I don't think you realize that working with the Iraqis to help them find their own path is pretty much what we've been doing over there for some time now. Imposing an outside leader (Iraqi exiles) and political system was the original plan, and it didn't work, but that plan was discarded even before the first elections. In fact, the elections were part of the process of discarding it.