Religion and Partition

One of the memes floating about these days, in connection with the war in Iraq, is that political partition along religious lines is the way to go.

The thinking runs thus: Someone -- and of necessity this someone would be an occupying power -- should simply divide the Shiites from the Sunnis (or most of one from most of the other anyway) by drawing the necessary lines on a map. Then there'd be two republics, no reason for domestic violence, and stability would bloom, along with petroleum-fueled prosperity.

How, after all, could such a plan fail? Religion-based partition has such a marvelously successful history in, say, Ireland, Cyprus, and the Indian subcontinent!

Okay, not so much.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/opinion/15guha.html?_r=1&oref=slogin