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Line 12: ==Criticism of this idea== In a 2016 article, [[Ben Connable]] strongly criticized the idea of partitioning Iraq in both its soft and hard forms.<ref name = "connable">{{Cite web|url=https://warontherocks.com/2016/05/partitioning-iraq-make-a-detailed-case-or-cease-and-desist/|title=Partitioning Iraq: Make a Detailed Case, or Cease and Desist|date=May 16, 2016|website=War on the Rocks}}</ref> First of all, Connable points out that neither Iraqi Sunni Arabs nor Iraqi Shi'a Arabs–and, for that matter, none of Iraq's prominent political factions–actually want the partition of Iraq, in either its soft or hard forms.<ref name = "connable"/> This is something that is also confirmed in Iraqi [[opinion polls]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/iraq/why-soft-partition-iraq-wont-work|title=Why 'Soft Partition' of Iraq Won't Work|date=March 12, 2007|website=Crisis Group}}</ref> Connable points out that Iran, the biggest beneficiary of expanded influence in Iraq in the event of a U.S. withdrawal from there, likewise does not seek the partition of Iraq and that in any case neither the United States nor any other country would actually be able to order Iraq's leadership to partition their country against their own will.<ref name = "connable"/> Connable also points out that even if the partition of Iraq were somehow accomplished, the Shi'a-led government in the southern, rump part of Iraq would be even less willing to cooperate with Iraq's Sunni Arabs if they were a part of an independent state as opposed to if they remained a part of Iraq.<ref name = "connable"/> In addition, he argues that the scale of [[ethnic cleansing]] that is likely to take place after a partition of Iraq, whether soft or hard, is likely to be much worse than the scale of the ethnic cleansing that was currently happening in Iraq.<ref name = "connable"/> In this regard, Connable's argument is shared by Robert Mackey, who pointed out to the terrible effects that partition and the ethnic cleansing that subsequently accompanied it previously had in [[Partition of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Partition of India|India]], and [[Partition of Palestine|Palestine]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://theintercept.com/2019/09/06/joe-biden-defends-record-iraq-including-plan-divide-along-sectarian-lines/|title=Biden's Plan to Segregate Iraq Would Have Unleashed Chaos|first1=Robert MackeyRobert|last1=MackeySeptember 6 2019|first2=7:03|last2=P.m|website=The Intercept}}</ref> In a 2015 article, ''[[Vox]]'' [[journalist]] Max Fisher likewise invokes the extreme violence and forced displacement that occurred as a result of the partition of India as an argument against partitioning Iraq.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/6/22/8824069/iraq-breakup|title=This is a terrible idea for fixing Iraq, and Washington loves it|first=Max|last=Fisher|date=June 22, 2015|website=Vox}}</ref> [[Anthony Cordesman]] argues that Iraq does not have clear and neatly dividing internal ethnoreligious borders and as well as no reliable ethnoreligious [[census]] [[data]], with [[Daniel Serwer]] arguing that in the event of a hard partition of Iraq, war could literally break out over disputed, vital, important, and ethnically mixed areas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/iraq-partition-proposal-based-on-several-false-premises-1.1002684|title=Iraq partition proposal based on several false premises|website=The Irish Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/30/why-a-partitionediraqisabadidea.html|title=Why a partitioned Iraq is a bad idea|website=america.aljazeera.com}}</ref> Meanwhile, Ben Connable also raises other problems with partition, such as the question of why exactly an independent rump Shi'a-majority state in southern Iraq would actually be willing to share some of the profits from its vast [[oil reserves]] with a poor, backward, landlocked, and possibly hostile independent Sunni Arab state in western Iraq, especially if this Shi'a-majority state actually saw things through a sectarian lens, which is a necessary precondition for any partition of Iraq.<ref name = "connable"/> ==References== | |||