[Alberta's Child]

Ah...that's why the people who've lived there all there lives (and must know so much less about Iraq than you) voted in a constitution that establishes a single Iraqi state. Gotcha.

Then what was that whole episode with the U.S. trying to construct a wall through the middle of Baghdad all about?

I'd also point out that the Iraqi constitution in question enshrines Islam as the official state religion, which raises two points: 1) it pretty much guaranteed that the country could never be unified (i.e., the Shi'ite-Sunni conflict was inevitably going to raise its ugly head); and 2) there's no way in hell the U.S. public would ever have supported this stupid war in the first place if it had known back in 2002 that the U.S. government would p!ss away 3,000+ lives on a bizarre campaign to establish an Islamic state in the Middle East.

[Mr. Silverback]

Then what was that whole episode with the U.S. trying to construct a wall through the middle of Baghdad all about?

Nice hyperbole, do you work for the NYT? Building a wall between one Shiite neighborhood and one Sunni neighborhood because of suicide bombings is hardly "a wall through the middle of Baghdad."

The wall (and sectarian violence) doesn't prove anything. If the Iraqis really wanted to be separated in three different ethnic groups, they would have elected different people to their constitutional convention. Otherwise, it's like saying you want tough policy on illegal aliens and then writing in Elvira Arellano for Congress.

I'd also point out that the Iraqi constitution in question enshrines Islam as the official state religion, which raises two points

So what's your plan? Split it into two Islamic states and a Kurdish state?

It's their country, they set up the rules. That's part of the deal.