[Exsubmariner]

The British have always, as a matter of policy, done things this way. The principle is that basically, the more you set the stage for the conquered to be at each others throats, the more likey you are able to exploit the situation indefinately. It's proven effective many times. Look at Isreal. Before the Zionists got control of Palistine, it was the British who gave land grants to the Yemenese so they would go and live there. Before that, hardly anyone lived in Palestine.

Anyway, to the matter at hand, I do think that failure to allow the Kurds, Sunnies and Shia to split into separate independent states peacefully would be a mistake. It's going to happen one way or the other. Might as well kill as few people as possible. I don't think the Sunni's will go along, though, because as a minority, they are going to get the short end of the deal, and this after being the special privileged group under Saddam. Any way you cut it, there may be civil war.

The more I study this, the more I think it was poorly thought out from the beginning.