Iraq and Colonial Legacy

I came across this letter in today's Times.

"To the Editor:

Roger Cohen (column, Sept. 13) considers an Iraq breakup “unthinkable.” Why? What is so sacred about the artificial colonial borders? Why is “democracy” in conflict with self-determination?

Why should the Sunnis and Kurds be ruled by the Shiites? Or in Kosovo, what is so wrong with a referendum, which might result in the Serb-populated areas voting to return to Serbia?

Who are we to set the borders of other nations? How would we feel if they did it to us?"

I think this about sums it up. I would add that all these borders within the former Ottoman Empire were drawn by the British following the defeat of the Turks in the Great War, and that the fallout is still with us.