The Illusions of Iraqi Anarchists
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed

In Iraq, there is the misconception that secession of the south means its inhabitants will be granted wealth since the area is rich in oil. There is also the belief that because the south is predominantly Shia, it should be a separate state. Some even believe that if the Americans were to leave Iraq tonight, the Sunnis would finally be granted peace. There are also rumors circulating that the Kurds are in desperate search of an opportunity to conflict with Arabs in central and southern Iraq so that ultimately they would be able to establish a united Kurdish state in the north. Finally, there is also the Arab claim that the Shia are collectively in support of Iran.

In fact, all the abovementioned claims are nothing but myths propagated by educated people who have arrived at such conclusions and built upon such stories to present them as facts.

It is untrue that if the south secedes it will be a united and affluent Shia entity. Rather, it is likely that it would disintegrate into deprived and conflicting statelets and the past few days have demonstrated a painful example of this likelihood. There will never be stability in any cases of secession of the Sunnis, Kurds or Shia. For three years, the Sunnis have been at war amongst themselves. In addition, the recent conflicts in western Iraq between clans and armed combatants is an example of conflict between central Iraqis, which is likely to continue in a similar way to the warring parties of Somalia. Although the Kurdish area seems more civilized, better organized and more stable, any separation may create discord between the two main parties that are yet to resolve the issue of governance. Moreover, brutal disputes also exist among them that are no less dangerous than those of central and southern Iraq.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed throws some cold water on those who think that if the US leaves Iraq everything will just settle down in three separate mini-states. He notes that the Iraqis need to solve their problems, but they aren’t anywhere near serious enough yet to do so.