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I saw an interview on PBS a few weeks ago with a Middle East expert who basically called this idea a delusional farce that must have originated with someone who has no clue about Iraq's population today. The basic problem is that the three major religious/ethnic groups aren't really divided along neat, clean geographic boundaries (as the population of the Balkans was, for the most part). There are many areas of the country (Baghdad, for example) where all three groups -- or at least the two major ones (Shi'ites and Sunnis) -- live in close proximity to each other in areas that are not clearly defined.

According to this guy, one other thing that makes this such a goofy idea is that most of Iraq's population is largely secular -- which means there has been so much intermarriage between these various sects that a large portion of the population doesn't even fit into a single category. If someone has a Sunni father and a Shi'ite mother, then where does he live?

The very notion that such an arrangement would include "an equitable share of the oil revenues" makes it inevitable that it would never function as a viable group of nation-states, since the only way to guarantee this kind of "equitable share" would be to put these three states under the authority of some kind of outside governing body.

In other words, this arrangement would be a "New World Order" globalist's dream.

The basic problem is that the three major religious/ethnic groups aren't really divided along neat, clean geographic boundaries (as the population of the Balkans was, for the most part).

You're kidding, right?

You make good points about the intermingling of peoples. though i think the Sunnis are concentrated in the so called Sunni Triangle. The Kurds could make a go of it. the already have developed autonomous institutions, political, social, and military. A Kurdistan would enflame Iran and Turkey. I could care less about Iran, and maybe could see to using Iranian Kurdish territory as a settlement area for Turkish Kurds. But the Turks would go nuts. I've recently read a little about the Greek Turkish war of 1919-1921 and it was one horrific piece of business. With modern weapons I could see a Turk-Kurdish conflict rewriting some casualty records.