“Some of the remarks, some of the articles, some of the speech coming from Washington or the United States actually are not realistic. Those people that don’t understand really what’s happening in Iraq,” said parliamentarian Sami al-Askiri. “Most Iraqis, maybe all of the active parties, are pro-united Iraq, no one is going to divide Iraq. And it is not practical as well.”

As Iraq’s government is unable to quell the violence marring the historic nation and fails to make good on most of 18 benchmarks Washington set for it, the call for splitting the country up grows. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., perhaps the most articulate critic of Iraq-as-is, is in Iraq this week, scoping the scene before next week’s hearings on the benchmark report.

Numerous think tanks have also supported the idea that, to some extent, would create three zones of Iraq: the northern area where the Iraqi Kurds already have relative autonomy; the Sunni in Iraq’s west; and Shiites in the south. No area is close to 100 percent of that sect or ethnicity, but with inter-sectarian violence refusing to ebb, critics are looking to create buffers.

“It is a dream of somebody who is relaxing in Washington or New York. It is not easy,” he said. “The administration wants to show the Congress that it succeeds in Iraq and the Democrats want to show the Americans that the president has failed and the surge didn’t work.”

“It is an internal struggle between the two parties,” he added, “and the field, the ground, is Iraq. … At the end the reality of Iraq, the Iraqis will decide.”

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Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor