More on the Sunni - Shi'a split and plans to redraw the Mid East Map

This is sort of a follow up to Hersh's story about the USA finally deciding to back the Sunni minority in Iraq and bankroll several dozen Jihad factions operating out of the country, but on a more regional level.

It turns out that a certain Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters drew up a plan to make the Middle East peaceful by...well, breaking it up into nice ethnically united regions, like what happened in the Balkans. Apparently, the Vice President's Office (AKA Neo-Con bolt hole No. 1) is quite keen on the plan and, while I cannot find any official documentation to support this, France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have all mentioned US plans for partition in diplomatic circles over the past month or so.

The War Nerd does an excellent job as always in pointing out the fatal flaws of the argument. Apart from stabbing a few major allies in the back, Iran is the problem with this already incredibly stupid plan.

Iran is a stable, powerful state with one overwhelmingly dominant ethnic group. They might not like it if you tried to detach their oil fields, and they could send in hundreds of thousands of troops to register their disapproval. And we'd counter with what?

Trying to redraw the region at large is going to create an incredible mess and I can only hope that someone in State or Defence points that out some time soon, before Cheney's mad friends get too carried away with themselves.