IRAQ'S FRAGILE UNITY.

Iraq's disintegration should not be a surprise, because the country already has natural and sectarian divisions that could not be bridged, and to surmise that a Democratic type of government in its present form there would survive, would only be a fantasy.

Vice President Joe Biden, when he was running in the 2008 Democratic Party's nomination race for president, made a suggestion that Iraq should be a federation; however, people there and even outsiders poo pooed the idea, thinking that a unified country would serve its citizens better.

Now, the Vice President (Biden) is seen to be right, as there is not the slightest of doubt that the country is breaking up under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is a Shiite, and for that matter, who is trying to hold his lose coalition government together.

The Sunnis, which are his somewhat "natural enemies", will always create problems for him, based, if not on anything else, but strictly or primarily on religious beliefs.

The Kurds in the north of the country are autonomous, and they have more or less isolated themselves from Iraq since the end of the Persian empire, which itself was made up of a myriad of tribal groupings.

Persia has managed to exist through violence, domination and war, and it covered present day Iran and Turkey, plus other subsidiary and neighboring countries, in addition to Iraq.

Saddam Hussein has used the same tactics of violence and autocracy to keep his country to become united. He has brutalized the Kurds, with mustard gas attacks in their attempt to break away. The consequence of which led to his trial and ultimate execution.

Under the present circumstances, and since the introduction of Democracy, after the United States and allied invasion, the tribal and religious demarcations, with their numerous differences, have been covered up, for the sake of a unity; but it was one, which was still disquieting.

Yet, the least incident, as al-Maliki, requesting the return of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is a wanted person "for plotting assassinations during the insurgency," and who has since fled to the Kurdish region, it is rather very unlikely that the al-Maliki government has any chance of survival; due to the unity in the country being so fragile.

After the pullout of U.S. troops, many anticipated that the Iranian influence would intensify, and that would make it impossible for the country to maintain a truly political and centralized government.

So, Vice President Joe Biden's prediction during the 2008 Democratic Party's nomination campaign has come back to haunt the Iraqis. They could use his advice now, even if they have turned it down before, and settled for a federated government.

The U.S. has done its part to free millions of people in Iraq from a despicable and brutal dictator.

It is about time the Iraqis themselves have to take their future in their own hands and nurture it into something that they will be proud of as a nation.

In fact, and on a jocular note, if there is one element that can really unite Iraq, it will be the game of football or soccer.

Otherwise, nothing else can.