Reply #9: Too bad. It's the only thing left that makes any sense.

[moondust]

Separating these hostile groups may be the only way to prevent a future bloodbath or the constant threat thereof whether it comes in 6 months, 3 years or 20.

As evidence that these groups cannot live together peacefully unless held together by despotic rule one only needs to look at the four million or so Iraqi refugees that escaped their neighborhoods with their lives. As long as Iraqis live in mixed neighborhoods they will always be easy targets for the same kind of violence that drove that four million out.

If separated these groups could largely govern and police themselves and virtually all U.S. troops could leave knowing the odds of a long and bloody civil war are greatly diminished. The four million displaced could move back to their own sectors almost immediately and live in relative safety, ultimately protected by their their own.

The Iraqis would always have the option of reintegrating once things cool down and they actually WANT to live together without all the killing and maiming.

I think the Senate is right but it's up to the Iraqis, preferably average Iraqis and not those who see themselves getting rich and powerful off a big "united" Iraq that is actually a failed state in a perpetual civil war.