The Three-State Solution

Writing for the New York Times, Leslie H. Gelb has a solution for the war in Iraq. That’s right, a solution. He says that Iraq is actually three countries that never belonged together, in the first place. They never chose to be married, so let’s give ‘em a divorce.

It makes way too much sense for me to think George Bush will see the wisdom in Gelb’s strategy. The Bushies don’t seem to be much interested in more than using Iraq to make fast money for their friends and holding onto power.

So, if Bush can’t/won’t use Gelb’s advice, I hope a smart Democrat like Wes Clark or Howard Dean will pick up on it: “The Three-State Solution.”

Here’s a sample of Gelb’s essay:

The only viable strategy, then, may be to correct the historical defect and move in stages toward a three-state solution: Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south. Almost immediately, this would allow America to put most of its money and troops where they would do the most good quickly — with the Kurds and Shiites. The United States could extricate most of its forces from the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad, largely freeing American forces from fighting a costly war they might not win. American officials could then wait for the troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without oil or oil revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences.

Get mad - and get even

In the Guaradian Unlimited writer Gary Younge addresses the "perception gap" the Bushies show, and he has some advice for his fellow Brits that Americans should consider as well.

"The difference between how Bush and his administration perceive the world and almost everybody else experiences it would be comic if the consequences were not so tragic. It is not the product of a misunderstanding but carefully crafted, willful ignorance. Once, when asked how he gets his information, Bush said: 'The best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff.'"

Read the commentary by clicking here

A Display That Diminishes Us

Tony Horwitz gives us a glimpse of how America might look to those outside of the 9/11-obsessed USA.

"...The 'real America,' I've insisted a thousand or so times -- in Arab souks, in Russian villages, in Australian pubs, in letters to the editors of foreign papers -- isn't the mindless, jingoistic, Humvee caricature of a culture that's frequently presented in the foreign media, or in the crassest exports of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. It's a vibrant, varied, open and warm society. Come visit and you'll see for yourself!

"I still believe this, but few outside America will if we continue to present ourselves, in even the most innocuous settings, as a militarized and self-absorbed people who are in a state of perpetual siege [due to 9/11]."

Read the Washington Post OpEd piece.