SCIRI talks about partition

This "federalized" version of Iraqi partition is being pushed by Abdelaziz Hakim, the head of the SCIRI, the Shia group most closely associated with Iran.

Leaders of Iraq's powerful Shiite Muslim political bloc have begun aggressively promoting a radical plan to partition the country as a way of separating the warring sects. Some Iraqis are even talking about dividing the capital, with the Tigris River as a kind of Berlin Wall....

Sunni leaders see nothing but greed in the new push — the Shiites, they say, are taking advantage of the escalating violence to make an oil grab.

(It's LATimes, so here's a non-registration link.)

Partition sounds so easy and clean, but it's not. Who defines the borders? Think the oil regions and revenues will be peacefully given up? What happens to the minorities on the wrong side of those borders?

Partition is a possible solution, but it is a solution that will lead to even more violence and death, not to mention the creation of an oil rich Iranian/Shia client state that is within missile range of the Saudi oilfields. An Iranian client state that could credibly threaten to shut down oil production from Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

Then there's the possibility of a Hezbullah type militia operating unchallenged in southern Iraq exerting influence southward across the border. The Saudis won't stand for that, so they will continually fund and support Sunni attacks on the region.

Our "allies" in the war on terror are already funding the same Sunni insurgents that are killing US troops. This is a war that will not end.

(There is the possibility that partition is being raised as a negotiating tool against the Sunnis.)