From a reader:

Rich, Jonah,
I think you’re both going in the same direction, but your disagreement
on tactics are clouding your agreement. Basically, our hope has got to
be that the Iraqis (under pressure from us or on their own) come up
with a blueprint for a decent government. Just a decently restricted
state, with regular elections, checks and balances at the national
level, possibly with leeway for the Kurds, Shi’ites, Sunnis, to have
differing arrangements in their majority areas. Some recognition of
women’s rights is probably a sine qua non, but it can be worked out
over time what it actually means. Of course, we’ve put them (like the
Germans, Japanese, et al.) on the road to a parliamentary system rather
than our own three-branch system for reasons I don’t quite understand
(especially when there’s a Shi’ite majority that might like to run
roughshod over the others, à la Tony Blair plowing under the House of
Lords, etc.).