The “duct tape across the room” solution

From the Sunday UK Times: “America ponders cutting Iraq into three”

An independent commission set up by Congress with the approval of President George W Bush may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions, according to well informed sources.

The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, is preparing to report after next month’s congressional elections amid signs that sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces are spiralling out of control. The conflict is claiming the lives of 100 civilians a day and bombings have reached record levels.

The Baker commission has grown increasingly interested in the idea of splitting the Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq as the only alternative to what Baker calls “cutting and running” or “staying the course”.

IIRC, the autonomous regions plan was floated by Joe Biden; I’m sure he’ll make note of it on CNN’s Late Edition tomorrow. Of course the Kurds already have a de facto state across Northern Iraq, so this plan is designed mainly to keep the Sunni and Shiites away from each other. Oil revenue sharing and millennium-old hatred are two not-so-minor roadblocks to this plan.