Baker says federalism probably not the answer

When asked about Senator Biden and Leslie Gelb's plan for autonomous Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions as a solution for the violence in Iraq, James Baker, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, "tasked by Congress and the President to take a fresh look at the problem of Iraq" said, "There are arguments in favor of that approach, but there are also a lot of arguments that run the other way. And a lot of the people we've talked to, particularly experts on Iraq, have suggested that if we do that, that in itself will trigger a huge civil war because the major cities in Iraq are mixed, and there's no way to draw lines between Sunnis, Shia and Kurds in the major cities of Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk. And furthermore, there are no boundaries between the Sunni areas and the Shiite areas in Iraq. How do you draw the boundaries? And the minute you say you're going to do that and make three autonomous regions you're likely to kick off a big civil [war] . . . But we haven't rejected the idea, George. We haven't rejected a lot of suggestions. We simply haven't concluded our report yet."

source
ABC News. This Week. The Path Out of Iraq. (Interview with James Baker by George Stephanopoulos). October 8, 2006. (video link in sidebar)

related posting
[1] Federalism and mixed cities. October 01, 2006.
[2] Iraqi troops try to stem violence in Kurd-dominated Kirkuk / Kurds could have behaved better. October 08, 2006.

posted: tuesday, october 10, 2006, 2:29 AM ET
update: thursday, october 12, 2006, 12:59 AM ET