I imagine that's what it would take to do the dividing now. I always thought was what the ultimate goal should be however. You see we keep spouting this crap about self-determination and the last time the inhabitants of the region truly got to do that, the division of cultures and land is exactly what occurred naturally. Let's thank the British for coming up with such an unworkable solution as tossing them all in together in some tepid stew.

I'm not sure however that I can envision a way to split the sectors now. Can you imagine the nightmare of relocating so much of the population? Sure there's some natural physical divisions already but, from the maps I've seen, little pockets of sects are all over the place.

I always get a laugh too when people recommend international peacekeeper involvement this late in the process. It certainly makes sense but only if other countries still want to contribute. I think many of the potential candidates for being in that coalition have long since turned their backs to the region because of the dissing they got from the current administration. Maybe if Bush and Cheney were gone and a new State Department was formed could the scars be healed but it's a crapshoot anymore.

Maybe we should think more outside the box. Determine the lines that separate the three major sects in Iraq and then plant dirty nukes along those lines. Give everyone a week or so to pick their spots. Once blown up, there'll be this nuclear no-man's-land between them all. Boy, the international good will we'd receive from that gesture.

Art