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Iraqi-American Fawaz Saraf emails these insightful comments:
From the BBC:
….Sunnis have expressed concerns that allowing for federalism may lead to the creation of an autonomous Shia area in southern Iraq - like the Kurdish north but under Iran's influence….
…This kind of federalism - with an autonomous Kurdistan in the north and a big oil-rich Shia "region" in the south - leaves the minority Sunni Arabs appalled…
…They fear being left with a rump mini-state bereft of oil. They also fear the eventual break-up of the country…
Both Shiites and Kurdish representatives on the Constitutional committee as well as Shiites and Kurdish members of parliament should not compromise on the issue of federalism. A loose federation of a predominantly Kurdish northern region, a predominantly shiite southern region, a predominantly sunni western region, and region of a ethnically and religiously mixed Baghdad and possibly Kirkuk is the best hope for a stable Iraq.
The sooner Sunni leaders accept the reality that Iraq is a diverse country with very rich regional traditions and customs and the sooner they abandon their destructive delusion that we all should be united under one Iraqi (and Arab) cultural banner, the sooner Iraq can return to normalcy and stability.
Iraqi shiites and kurds, having suffered the brunt of a strong Sunni dominated central government campaign of intimidation and murder, should never again allow their regions to be controlled by a strong central government.
As for the Sunni leaders’ fear of a Shiite region dominated by Iran, I must admit that in the midst of a Sunni dominated insurgency assisted by thousands of Arab terrorists murdering Iraqis by the thousands, the audacity and hypocrisy of such fears are startling.
