They Voted for One Iraq

The recent provincial elections in Iraq confirmed the national identity of the Iraqi people. Voting overwhelmingly for nationalist candidates, Iraqis voted to keep Iraq together as one - an outcome that defies the predictions of many.

Myths and distortions about Iraq's history have been used to promote arguments for a divided Iraq. Peter Galbraith, in an October op-ed in The New York Times, claimed that Iraq has an "absence of a shared identity … [and] there was never shared national identity." While Iraq's current borders derive from arbitrary boundaries drawn by the British after the First World War, people within these borders have lived for more than 1,000 years with an identity shaped by their proximity to Baghdad, a shared language and a shared literary, political and social culture.

Nevertheless, many believe that Iraqi identity is defined more by ethnic divisions than national solidarity. This conclusion is an example of how ideology trumps facts — especially from those who know Iraq only from the relative comfort of American soil.

It is easy to forget that the division of Iraq into three regions was perpetrated by the laws placed upon Iraq by the U.S.-backed Coalition Provisional Authority. The resulting sectarian divisions created the atmosphere for promotion of the "soft" partitioning of Iraq along sectarian lines, as promoted in recent years by Joe Biden before his selection as Barack Obama's running mate.