Iraq continues to fall apart as Iraqi parliament votes to allow partition

Things continue to fall apart in Iraq.

Today, the Shiite Majority parliament endorsed a measure that would allow the effective partition of the country after an 18-month waiting period.

That would leave Iraq with a weak central government and largely independent states run by Kurds in the north, Shiites in the south and Sunnis in the center and west.Something that, as far as I'm concerned, should have happened from the very beginning.

The National Unity government also announced that next Saturday's much-anticipated national reconciliation conference had been indefinitely postponed for "emergency reasons." Among other things, Iraq's deeply divided politicians hadn't even managed agree on where to hold the conference.

The continuing sectarian violence has forced at least 1.5 million Iraqis to flee the country, with hundreds of new passports being issued daily to those who can afford a plane ticket or taxi ride out of the country, according to the Migration Ministry. The ministry also said 300,000 people had left their homes for elsewhere in Iraq...evidence that the populations are shifting and collecting into their natural areas.

There seems to be a growing concensus in the US that the best solution is the formation of a loose federal state, with Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds running areas where they are majorities.

It's about time.