Northern Ireland's Governent Begins A Power Sharing Arrangement

Unlike Iraq, where centuries of sectarian conflict between the Shiite and Sunni communities started soon after the death of Mohammed and continue to this day, the Christian Catholic and Protestant groups within Northern Ireland have worked out a power sharing agreement that allows a coalition government of the two major parties to rule this region.

Both Sein Finn and the Democratic Unionist Party will share power under this agreement. However, in Iraq the situation is far more bleak as a Sunni Vice President is threatening to withdrawal his Sunni bloc of power from the Iraqi Parliament, which may signal the last stop before a full collapse of the government into merely a Shiite instrument of rule, and only further throw this nation into the depth's of civil war.

Iraq needs to follow the example of Northern Ireland, but unfortunately may be decades or even centuries from such a political compromise. For the U.S. military with only 150,000 troops in a nation in the middle of a civil war of 26.7 million, or the population of Australia and Switzerland combined, is only an impossible task. Iraqis need to step up with both political and their own security solutions very soon.