Iraq dividing

Marie Colvin reports an ongoing carve-up of Baghdad:

The slaughter consuming Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in roughly equal measure may appear like anarchy from afar, but a closer look reveals a sinister plot. Starting in the west of the city, Sunni militants have seized district after district, creating their own zone that extends into the heart of Baghdad.

The Shi'ites are not innocent. Since the explosion at a Shi'ite mosque in Samarra in February, their militias have exacted vicious revenge. The morgue classifies victims according to their injuries; if a victim has been beheaded, he is a Shi'ite killed by Sunnis. If he has been killed by a power drill to the head, he is a Sunni murdered by Shi'ites. Most victims have been tortured. Bodies are dumped by the roadside and lie there for hours.
.....
While the Shi'ites are fired by blind vengeance, the Sunnis appear to have a plan. They are trying to split Baghdad in half in advance of a proposal to carve Iraq into three federal regions.

Most of the country divides easily. The north is mainly Kurdish, the south Shi'ite, and the central desert region Sunni. Baghdad, too mixed to divide without a massive population transfer, is the sticking point in this plan.

But look at the changing map of Baghdad today. From the western suburb of Abu Ghraib, neighbourhoods have fallen under the control of Sunni radicals, their Shi'ite residents sent fleeing, their homes abandoned or taken by Sunni families, their businesses bombed, shuttered or reopened under Sunni ownership. Baghdad is on its way to becoming two cities, the west Sunni, the east and north Shi'ite.

Peter Galbraith argues that a de facto partition of the country is already under way and that de jure partition is now the only solution to its troubles:

While the break-up of Iraq was certainly unintended, it was inevitable and it happened... To try to put Iraq together is a recipe for an endless coalition presence with no prospect for success.

Rend al-Rahim, executive director of the Iraq Foundation, thinks partition would solve nothing; it would exacerbate current tendencies:

A plan to partition Iraq would plunge the country into total civil war far more widespread and bloody than the sectarian and factional violence we are witnessing now.

Jules Crittenden says...

President Bush must finally do what he failed to do five years ago: Increase the size of the U.S. military... This means Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney must go.

Fareed Zakaria disagrees:

The United States must redefine its mission, reduce and redeploy its forces and fashion a less intrusive involvement with Iraq, one that both Iraqis and Americans believe is productive and sustainable for the long term.

Zakaria's article (via Clive) is long and cannot be neatly summarized.

Finally, see this report on Iraqis in Australia opposing a withdrawal of troops:

"People went out and voted in spite of all the threats of the terrorists and the jihadists.

"I think you should listen to them. The majority of them, at this stage, are in favour of stabilising the country before calling on troops to leave the country."

(Via Tim Blair.)