Solutions in Iraq

Given the recent outbreak of violence in Iraq, I think it is time the U.S. reevaluated its position and reduced its push to make a "full democracy" from the ashes of Iraq. The Bush administration seems bent on making Iraq a democracy in the mold of the U.S. However, I wonder if Bush or those close to him have ever opened a history book.

What many fail to realize is that before the federal form of government we enjoy today, the U.S. was governed by an "Articles of Confederation" where all states were equal and each State was entitled to one vote. Back in the day, citizens of New York would have been just as angry about being lumped together with South Carolinans as Shites are at being put together with Kurds and Sunnis. For awhile, we plodded along under the Articles of Confederation until we woke up and realized a system where one vote couold be a veto was senseless. We came together in Philadelphia and realized we had much more in common than we previously thought.

I propose we let Iraq follow the same path. Right now Iraqis identify with their regional association whether Kurd, Sunni, or Shite. If we let them form 3 states they would probably be happy. They could work together under a United Iraq much like we did under the Articles of Confederation. Given several years, I would bet that many of them would start to remember that they have more in common than they think they do right now.

We seek to impose a federal form of government on a nation that has little experience with such things. In doing, so we seem to have forgotten where we came from. We had to create a nation from the ground up much like Iraq is trying to do now. We formed a federal form of government after we realized that was the best thing. Even embodied in that document are the compromises of our forefathers. Slavery, although the scourge of the Constitution was a product of compromise. Same thing with the Senate and the House of Reps. We need to let Iraq work through their problems the same way we had to. The time has come to look at history and realize the struggle it takes to form a "more perfect Union."