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Title stolen shamelessly from Spoons. He objects to reserving positions for Sunnis, as does Kris. I’m not as concerned with it at the moment because it is just another interim government which will draft a permanent constitution.
Over the longer run, they have a point, though I suspect Kris would disagree with me; maybe Spoons too. Iraq seems like a country that screams out for federalism. In their case, establishing states (or provinces) to act as a counterbalance to the central government. If they created a Senate that represented these provinces it would insure de facto representation for the Shias, Sunnis and Kurds at the federal level.
As for permanently setting aside “Sunni” positions in the executive? Seems like a bad idea, though giving them equal representation in the Senate is a good idea—after they’ve ceased the violence and allowed elections to proceed in their area.
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3 comments:
Actually, I think a federal structure for Iraq would make some sense (i.e., more than the administration’s current plan).
Of course, what would have made the most sense would have been the one option we ruled out from the beginning—partition of the country. Of course, it was more important for political reasons to keep Turkey on our side, so we immediately rejected the plan that had the greatest chance of working.
Spoons,
The partition argument is appealing until, as you noted, you consider Turkey’s hostility to the Kurds and, as one of your commenters mentioned, the distribution of natural resources.
Going forward I think the best solution is rigorous federalism. Over time they could learn to live together and would have a Senate and states to provide power and a place to vent.
There’s no question that partition would be an outright disaster due to the distribution of resources. A robust federalism, though, presents similar difficulties with the distribution of power, and notably with respect to the power of the purse. A robust federalism that didn’t grant sufficient veto power over the budget for the Sunnis and Kurds could create quite a bit of havoc. This obviously isn’t a concern that should queer the deal, but it ought to be considered by those in charge.