Thinking Outside The Box – “Break It Up!”

No, I’m not yelling at my kids… at least not this time.

First the disclaimer – I have absolutely no qualifications what so ever. As I’ve said before, I’m just another putz with an opinion and the chutzpah to publish it. But along with opinions I have ideas, and my ideas are not bound by whether or not they’ll be accepted. My ideas are bound by whether or not they make sense. So once again it’s time to take your blinders off and look all around, rather than at what is straight in front of you. Humor me again and lower your boundaries of thought processes. Instead of “That’ll never fly”, think, “Gee, does this make sense?”


Iraq

I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen or heard the word “quagmire” in the last three years. Clearly, everyone outside of Bush’s neo-con circle realizes that the situation in Iraq is completely out of control and can’t possibly be resolved. On the current path, we’re destined for endless war. For us it’s an endless “War on Terror”, and for the Iraqi’s, it’s an endless civil war. Either way, people are dying.

Iraq’s population consists of three very distinct factions – the Kurds, the Sunni’s, and the Shiites. In my opinion the only reason that Iraq has stuck together as a single country over the years is because of its dictatorship rule. One leader completely ruled the country for better or worse. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, only that the dictatorship government (in spite of its inevitable oppression) has kept the country together.

Now that we’ve bombed the shit out of that countr… er.. invaded that coun… er … occupied that cou… er…. liberated that country…. yeah, that’s it – LIBERATED that country, it’s time to realize that Democracy will not work in Iraq. It’s not that the Islamic countries haven’t truly embraced Democracy in general, but with three separate & distinct factions of the population, they’re destined to be fighting for power and control…. endlessly.

By the way, Democracy has rarely been the United States’ interest in foreign countries. Iran had a democratically elected Prime Minister (Mohammed Mossadegh) before we ousted him for a private-oil-industry-friendly dictatorship. You see, he was going to nationalize the oil industry and that would’ve impacted the oil industry’s profits. Oh, but I digress…

So here’s the radical outside-the-box idea – break up Iraq into three separate, independent and autonomous countries. This way each country can govern itself. The USSR did it. Even as I write this, Israel is doing it by evacuating the West Bank/Gaza strip and giving the Palestinians their own homeland. Hopefully the future of that area of the Middle East will be peaceful.

I understand that this is not the preference of the Sunni’s, as their supposed parcel of Iraq in decentralization would not contain the wealth and oil that the other factions would own. However, I believe that with enough negotiation and compromise, territorial lines could be drawn that are equitable.


The United States

Yes, the United States. I say break up the United States into two smaller countries. We’ll call them North US and South US. Clearly, there are two separate and distinct ideologies in this country, and it’s just not working.

North US (the ‘blue’ states) wants a more progressive and liberal government, where “Fiscal Responsibility” isn’t just an election sound bite. Where our government’s leaders are NOT war profiteers. Where there is a clear & distinct separation between the government and the religious community. Where the Constitution and civil rights have real meaning. Where taking care of our veterans, elderly, & children is real instead of empty rhetoric.

South US (the red-states) wants old-style conservatism. You know - where the men are men, and the sheep are nervous. Where theocracy can continue to rule and manipulate the Government. Where endless war is preferred because it means endless profits for the war industries. Where idiots like Pat Robertson can make complete asses of themselves and continue to lead their flocks of sheeple. Where election rigging is an acceptable part of the democratic process. Where the Constitution is just a guideline and everything in it is open for re-definition in the name of ‘fighting terrorism’.

The Civil War saw more US deaths then every other war combined with the exception of WWII. Nearly a million people were killed or wounded as the South tried to secede from the North so that they could continue their ‘culture’ of slavery. I bet the conservatives were chastising the ‘Liberals’ then for their radical ideology of civil rights (i.e. abolishing slavery). By the way, have you ever compared a map of the Civil War North vs. South with a similar map of the Red vs. Blue states from the 2000 election? They’re virtually identical.


Bringing it home

The United States should not be the only super-power left in the world. The United States should not be the world’s policemen. The United States has gotten too big for its britches. If the US were broken up into two smaller countries, there would be more balance in the world, and more separation of powers – one of the bedrock principles of the US Constitution. Right now there’s a terrible imbalance in the world, which has lead to colossal arrogance and subsequent alienation from the rest of the world.

About now the right-wingnuts are probably saying, “Well if you hate this country so much, why don’t you leave?” Believe me, I’ve heard that one before… plenty of times. My response to that - I don’t hate this country…. just the red-state assholes who are currently running it.