Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/plan-floated-to-divide-iraq-along-ethnic-lines Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript As the debate continues over the United States' next steps in Iraq, some proposals have called for sectioning the country along ethnic lines. Former State Department official Peter Galbraith discusses the decentralization of Iraq in this second of a Newshour series on the future of Iraq. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: There were calls today from American officials for Iraqis to take a stronger role running their own country. They came as the issue of Iraq continued to stir the midterm election rhetoric here, as well as propel our conversation series on what to do next in Iraq.Last night's was on ending the occupation. Tonight, it's decentralizing Iraq along ethnic lines.Two weeks ago, Iraq's parliament passed a law that would allow the creation of autonomous Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions, each controlling their own affairs. A major proponent of this is Peter Galbraith, a former State Department official who's advised Iraqi Kurdish leaders on political issues. He's also author of "The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End." I talked with him earlier today from London.Mr. Ambassador, welcome. PETER GALBRAITH, Former State Department Official: Good to be with you. JIM LEHRER: You favor a form of decentralized partition for Iraq. Why? PETER GALBRAITH: The country has already broken up. And actually, I'm opposed to using U.S. resources to try to put it back together again.Kurdistan in the north is already a de facto independent state. It has its own elected government. It has its own army. It flies its own flag. The Iraqi army is not allowed to go to Kurdistan. The Iraqi flag is banned there.The Shiite south is governed by the Shiite religious parties who enforce an Iranian-style Islamic law with militias. It's also not governed from Baghdad.Baghdad itself is the front line of a civil war divided between a Shiite east and a Sunni west, and the Sunni center is a battleground between the coalition and Sunni insurgents.So the country has already broken up, and this result is actually incorporated into the Iraqi constitution. The constitution creates a virtually powerless center — it doesn't even have the power to tax — and very strong regions that are allowed to have their own armies, where regional law is superior to central government law on almost all matters, and where the regions have substantial control of their own oil.So if that's the result that has been endorsed by the Iraqi people, I don't see why the United States should try to put the country back together.