Iraq: Deadlock by Design

gwynnedyer.net: Six weeks after the 30 January election that White House press flacks hailed as the "purple revolution," the new Iraqi national assembly
opens (opened) on Wednesday, 16 March - but there is still no new
government in Iraq. Partly that is because of the attitude of the Kurds,
summed up last month by Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani in a "New York
Times" interview: "If the Kurdish people agree to stay in the framework of
Iraq in one form or another as a federation, then other people should be
grateful to them." And partly it's because the US wrote the rules in such a
way that the Kurds would have a stranglehold on the political process.

An opinion poll conducted in Iraq recently by Zogby International
showed that 82 percent of Sunni Arabs, and 69 percent even of Shia Arabs,
want the US out "now" or "very soon." (The main reason for the high Shia
turn-out in the January election was that their religious leaders told them
a Shia-dominated assembly was the quickest way to get the Americans out.)
But the Kurds of Iraq, around one-fifth of the population, want the US
occupation to continue, as it guarantees a weak Iraqi state and maximum
freedom of action for them. Link