It's hard to judge from this distance whether this is merely a Shiite power- and oil-grab or a legitimate (and perhaps sensible) plan to forestall a civil war by divying up Iraq — and Baghdad — along Sunni/Shiite clan lines.

But the grand vision of Iraq as a multicultural, multiethnic democracy seems today foolhardy, and any self-generated political proposal to avoid bloodshed ought to be applauded and taken very seriously.