Honor Iraq’s Past With Three New States
The Times’ Feb. 15 editorial “High-Wire Act in Iraq” sounded like a scolding parent chastising three errant children with three “shoulds” and a “must.” But these aren’t kids. Asking the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites “Why can’t you all just get along?” is an exercise in futility. They were a nation only because they had been literally hammered together, first by the British, and then kept that way by a brutal dictator.
Better than three presidents of one forced union of warring factions might be a recognition that these people want to be separate. Why not permit the Iraqis to reconstitute themselves after ancient Mesopotamia; perhaps as “Assyria” in the north for the Kurds, “Babylon” in the center for the Sunnis, and “Sumer” in the south for the Shiites. This might head off a three-way civil war with the U.S. caught in the middle.
Richard A. Davidson
Woodland Hills
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
