Imperialism by Proxy?
I've largely moved away from commenting on international politics with all that's been going on in South African politics of late. However, last week's US Senate resolution supporting the split of Iraq into regional sects concerns me.

The US Senate passed a resolution calling for Washington to support "a political settlement among Iraq's major factions based upon the provisions of the Constitution of Iraq that create a federal system of government and allow for the creation of federal regions." Translated, this means partitioning Iraq into various Sunni, Shiite etc sects, largely to lay any platform that will allow US forces to leave Iraq.

I find this disconcerting. The Iraqi government is under huge pressure from the US, and is treated as a mere subsidiary of its foreign policy at present. What the US Senate is doing, is trying to control the state of a foreign nation by proxy, largely to cover for its misadventures in Iraq. Decisions taken by the US Senate are largely seen as instructions to the Iraqi government, and Iraqi leaders have been noticeably disdainful.