#5 It really cracks me up that virtually every major argument of the American constitution has come up again and again with other nations. And yet, several of their brilliant and innovative solutions that have worked for us for 200 years have been ignored. For example, a bicameral legislature with an upper house based on a federalized district, and a lower house based solely on population. This solved the great problem of small states vs large *and* more populous vs less populous. Iraq is mistakenly seen as broken into three basic parts, until you examine it as 18 federal states. Several of those states are "swing" states, ethnically, and could vacillate considerably over time, based on demographic changes. This puts pressure on a federal government to moderate its views to get support from these swing states.
Ironically, Kurdistan represents to the Iraqi Constitution what slavery did in the US Constitution. Their demands for protection of their independence is really a demand for confederation, not federalism. This means that the future holds one of two courses: either a complete integration of Kurdistan into a greater Iraqi union; or an eventual breakdown into two nations.
If Kurds continue with their push for ethnic separation and a de facto split from the economy and social structure of the rest of Iraq, eventually they will either have a civil war, or a wise Iraqi leader, like the Czech leader Havel, will let them go without a fight. Hopefully, he will choose the latter course. |
