NICK DENTON SAYS FORGET NATION-BUILDING IN IRAQ: Try “unbundling” instead:

Like some of the overblown conglomerates of US capitalism, Iraq needs to be unbundled. Nation-unbundling, not nation-building. Support a separate Shiite state in southern Iraq, which would at least be legitimate. And let the Sunni ruling class discover the price of defiance is not merely a readjustment in the clan hierarchy, but the dismemberment of their local empire, and the alienation of their oil revenues. Now that at least would be a salutary warning to the Saudi regime, which also contends with a Shiite population on top of its oil fields.

As for lighting the beacon of Arab democracy, a fine goal in and of itself, try somewhere else, like Tunisia, Jordan or Qatar — some place that hasn’t been lobotomized by vicious dictatorship.

I don’t think I agree with this, but it’s an interesting angle.