STOP US Congress VOTE to partition Iraq

Urgent Open Letter to the U.S. Congress Protesting U.S. Senator Biden’s Amendment to Partition Iraq

We --- Iraqi-Americans and Iraqis around the world --- are Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen, Sunnis, Shia’, Christians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriac, Yazidis, Sabeans and Armenians. We are, above all, Iraqis.

As Iraqis, we have been unheard and unrepresented in Washington, which is unilaterally deciding the fate of our homeland. Iraq is a country with a pre-colonial identity as a nation-state --- Mesopotamia --- going back to ancient pre-biblical times.

Iraqis of different backgrounds, races, ethnicities and sects have coexisted for thousands of years, shaping and being part of a great and pluralistic civilization.

Only the Iraqi people have the right to determine the political and national future of Iraq. We, therefore, strongly denounce the resolution that was passed by the US Senate on September 26, 2007 that would allow a foreign government (the U.S. Government), not the Iraqis, to divide Iraq into ethnically-defined regions and sow the seeds for further conflict across our country and the whole region. This would be the act of a new colonial power – not the act of a great democracy --- no different in substance from the acts of the post-World War I colonial powers in dividing the Middle East.

Partitioning Iraq into three ethnic and religious regions will have dire consequences across the entire Middle East and West Asia region.

We urge the U.S. Congress and all other U.S. policymakers to drop the Biden resolution before concluding the conference agreement on the FY08 Defense Authorization Bill and carefully consider the following:

* The current Iraqi Constitution is still in dispute, but nowhere does it call for dividing our country based on ethnic and sectarian lines. Forming a consensus around an evolved constitution is a political task considered necessary for a political settlement in Iraq.

* We support, as Members of Congress claim they do, Iraq’s sovereignty and democracy - both require listening to and respecting the voice of the Iraqi people, who have been kept out of the process.

* The Biden resolution proposes a religious-ethnic solution in place of what should be a political solution. It is a prelude to future conflicts and a domino effect of sectarianism in Iraq, which will in turn lead to more instability within Iraq and throughout the region including Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan and the Gulf States. Furthermore, it will prevent political reconciliation among Iraqis and between Iraqis and Americans.

* Partitioning Iraq will create a bloodbath on a scale wider than that caused by the 1947 India-Pakistan partition. Major Iraqi cities are ethnically and religiously mixed. Partition will dramatically escalate the ethnic cleansing that has already made 4.2 million Iraqis into internal or international refugees.

* Overwhelming majorities of Iraqis and Americans have reached the same conclusion and consistently made the call: End the U.S. occupation; allow Iraqis to begin the hard work of rebuilding our society and our country; and, assist in construction of peace, justice, and democracy in Iraq. The U.S. voters strongly supported this call in the last election. The call remains unheeded by the U.S Government and, now, by the U.S. Congress.