Disintegration of the Soviet Empire and Yugoslavia at the end of the cold war underlined the historical fact that the artificial states always need a coercive authority to keep them from unraveling. And now Iraq is going to prove that there cannot be any exception to the rule.

Free of Saddam Hussein’s autocratic rule, Shiites, Kurds and the Sunnis that have been coerced to live together as a nation since 1920 are doing everything within their power to impress upon the world that they do not want to continue with the farce. There are irrefutable signs that each of these ethnic groups now wants to exert its individual and unique identity as an autonomous nation.

Against this backdrop, U.S. insistence that Iraq must remain as one nation is not only unrealistic but, in the eyes of many, will certainly work against its long term strategic interests in the region. Analysts believe that administration’s policy of forcing the Kurds and Shiites to accommodate the Sunnis who have historically been anti-American, anti-Semitic and represent global jihad is only fueling the fires of insurgency and will eventually alienate the Shiites and Kurds also.

Arab observers have no doubt that the U.S. policy of ignoring the long history of Sunni insurgencies and their commitment to the institution of jihad in trying to rehabilitate the Sunnis has been a key factor in emboldening the Islamist terrorists all over the region. It seems that the U.S. administration has allowed itself to be influenced by Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbors in believing that Sunnis can somehow be made a partner in the war on Islamist terrorism.  The U.S. administration has somehow disregarded the fact that Iraq’s Arab neighbors have their own reasons to keep the unnatural state in Iraq from falling.

The U.S. has to understand that its national security interests are different from those of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan and will never be defended by the Sunni Arabs. Whereas the Sunni Arab states are worried about an emergence of a Shiite crescent around them and Syria, Iran and Turkey are concerned about how the Iraq’s breakup will play with their long oppressed Kurd minorities, the U.S. has to consider how its disregard for the aspirations of the Kurds and Shiites, who have long been persecuted by the Sunni minority will affect its long term strategic interests in the region as Kurds and Shiites are a natural and logical partners in this war on terror because of their own bitter experience with the scourge of Islamist fascism.

The U.S. administration is being scared into believing that the Iraqi Shiites, once in power, will add to the Iran’s influence and therefore they must be kept in check. But the fact remains that a Shiite majority in Iraq that is convinced of the U.S. friendship can also act as an agent of freedom in bringing down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s neo-Nazi agenda. Everyone knows that Iraq’s Shiites under the influence of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani subscribe to a very different and opposing theory of government to that of propounded by Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomenie.

Another thing that has to be taken into consideration is that Ahmadinejad’s anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism is not a Shiite phenomenon. It is Iran’s attempt to dislodge the Arabs from the seat of leadership of the Muslim world. Anti-Semitism and global jihad is an integral part of the Sunni and Wahhabi ideology. And Ahmadinejad has hijacked the fascist plank only to out-maneuver the Sunni establishment.

Shiites cannot support the Wahhabi campaign to establish Khilafah as they realize that any Islamic state (Khilafah) that is based on Shariah will eventually be a Wahhabi and Sunni state that has historically and traditionally remained an anti-Shiite state. There is a long history of Shiite persecutions under the Sunni Caliphs and no Shiite wants its revival.

Shiites understand that the Sunni theocratic establishment does not accept them as Muslims - Sunnis consider Shiites as heretics and infidels. Today’s Sunnis who subscribe to the Wahhabi/Deobandi/Salafi school represent the traditions of those early “rightly guided Muslims” who murdered the family of the Prophet Muhammad and have continued to murder and target kill Shiites to date. That’s why Shiites cannot side with the Wahhabi anti-Americanism. They understand that their future lies in siding with open and democratic societies.

One thing that the U.S. has to consider is that its handling of Iraq’s ethnic problems will go a long way in helping or hindering the course of its policies in the Muslim world. Considering that right now there is hardly any support for its policies at the grass root level in the area, it has to work very hard to find a way to win the hearts and minds on the street. By convincing the long persecuted religious and ethnic minorities like Kurds and the Shiites in the region that it does not back the oppressive policies of the Sunni regimes any more, it can truly begin to gain some ground among the Muslim masses.

Kurds in the northern Iraq are the best example of this strategy. Having benefited by the U.S. protective umbrella in Saddam’s Iraq, they are the only ethnic group in the region that can comparatively be described as a pro American people. Iraqi Shiites can also be won by Washington if their fears are dispelled that the U.S. is not again betraying them by succumbing to the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian pressure in bringing back the Sunnis in power through the back door.

Kurds can be sighted as an example of this change of heart: the U.S. provided them with protection to establish their autonomy in northern Iraq. Today, that part of Iraq is the most U.S. friendly: the Kurds feel gratitude toward Washington and are ready to support it. Similarly, Shiites must also be allowed to feel that the U.S. is not trying to put them once again under the Sunni control in any way just because it wants to appease its Sunni Arab “friends”.

The removal of Saddam Hussein has to result in a U.S. friendly state or states. And it can only happen if the peoples of the region have a reason to believe that the U.S. is not working to keep them subservient to the interests of their Wahhabi oppressors. An artificial nation cannot be a friend of democracy. That’s why any attempt to save Iraq in its artificial state will only advance the cause of Islamist fascism. Divide it!