Quote Originally Posted by Mark O'Neill View Post
Steve,

Partition is a nice idea from 'our' point of view perhaps, improbable is my guesstimate from my (albeit very limited) understanding of Iraqi society and nationalism, and 'never going to happen' from an assessment of the real poltik of the region. Does anyone seriously think that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are going to idly sit by and let such a thing further destabilise their interests?

I think the whole idea is as much of a wet dream for people looking for a way out of Iraq as the necon ambitions for Iraq in 02/03.

Cheers

Mark
One of the great ironies of the Iraq conflict is that nations like Syria and Saudi Arabia which have a direct interest in the place hanging together and stabilizing haven't done squat to promote that end. Same thing with "old" Europe. The whole pile of them have decided that seeing the United States get its comeuppance is more important than stabilizing SWA. Just like us, they're going to be paying for their stupidity for decades.