… is that we’re trying to preserve what the British put together in the 1920s with little thought to the actual people who lived there and their pre-existing tribal loyalties. That problem today is nicely encapsulated by Dexter Filkins:
When the Americans smashed Saddam Hussein’s regime two and half years ago, what lay revealed was a country with no agreement on the most basic questions of national identity. The Sunnis, a minority in charge here for five centuries, have not, for the most part, accepted that they will no longer control the country. The Shiites, the long-suppressed majority, want to set up a theocracy. The Kurds don’t want to be part of Iraq at all. There is only so much that language can do to paper over such differences.
Hat tip to Kevin (who appears to have either turned off or broken his trackbacks) for the link.