The Baghdad Wall?

Interesting idea. The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob, cyberCongressman from Western Carolina is suggesting that we finish off the job in Iraq by essentially partitioning the city, letting Saddam control part of it, and wait for it to crumble like East Germany did. He asserts that doing so will save countless lives over the street-to-street fighting that we are all now bracing for.

Would it work? Almost certainly. But I'm afraid that it will take much, much too long to work. I believe that Saddam would let his part of the city starve rather than surrender. Saddam himself would have to starve to death before this would work - and that could take quite a while.

If 10,000 die during the complete forced removal of Saddam that will be less than if we try the Berlin approach. The street fighting will almost certainly be brutal, but it is the best of a bunch of not so great options.

I think that this theory will work on a regional scale though. A free and prosperous Iraq will eventually lead to the fall of the Iranian mullahocracy, the Syrian thugocracy and the Saudi monarchy. The beacon of hope represented by a new Iraq will have the same effect as West Germany did. The forces of progress and humanity will eventually spread from Iraq to the surrounding nations. The time for this to work will be, as it was in Europe, measured in decades.

Don't do it in Baghdad. We have spent too much time trying to protect civilians only to leave millions under the thumb of a murderous madman. At the city level, it would be a mistake. But by all means, let's help to build a prosperous and free Iraq that is a shining light in the dark Arab sea of despair.

Berlin is not the example to follow; West Germany is.