Even the tub-thumping, we love war, one-time freedom march sponsoring Washington Post admits that the news on the constitution is grim coming out of Iraq. The proposed constitution could cut back on rights for women, give Islam too much power and worst of all push the Sunnis into a desperate corner.
In short, what some Shiite and Kurd leaders are calling federalism looks dangerously like a recipe for partition or civil war. Perhaps the intractable insurgency has convinced these Iraqis that they must amputate and starve the Sunni heartland. Yet as American soldiers do most of the fighting against the Sunni insurgents, that solution would be disastrous for the U.S. mission and Western security more generally.
