http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.11180/pub_detail.asp
The challenge for the United States in Iraq was not simply to defeat the Saddam regime and the later coalition of jihadists and terrorists who infested the territory. The challenge should have been whether or not to undo the artificial nature of Iraq’s borders and provide justice for the different ethnicities, which make up the mosaic that is called Iraq.
The Ottoman Turks occupied the territory known also as Mesopotamia for 400 years until the map was re-drawn by Britain after defeating Turkey in World War 1 – again blurring ancient ethnicities.
The Butcher of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, subdued the different peoples of Iraq through fear and violent repression. But the ethnic yearnings were always simmering under the surface like a slow boiling pot.
The United States Administration under President Bush might have been better served if it had undone Britain’s artificial creation of Iraq and instead brought into existence several new sovereign nation states. Justice would have been served by the creation of such states. Now it is too late, thanks to President Obama’s retreat from Iraq.