Quote Originally Posted by Divinus Arma
Sure. You can view it that way. Just like the Articles of Confederation doomed these United States to a future with no sense of nationhood. But the founders saw this and drafted the Constitution.

But I would be incorrect to parallel the Iraqi Constitution to the Articles of Confederation. Similarly, you would be wrong in stating that federalism coupled with ethnic disparity will produce three seperate countries. Further, a perspective of regional autonomy or even regional conscienceness is ignorant of a historical Iraqi national identity.

It is true that power is divided amongst varying government institutions, be it provincial, regional, or federal. However, one must remember that Iraqi federalism holds a supremacy clause similar to the U.S. Constitution.

The bottom line is that in the new Iraq sovereignty rests with the body of people, and the power to govern is granted through the will of the people. How this power is distributed through the provincial, regional, and federal entities is for the people to decide. Something, it seems, they have done. Together. As one nation.
Your working on a number of assumptions that may not be true.
1.That the Iraqi's have a sense of national identity, I've seen little to suggest that they do. If there was one it was a Sunni ideal.
2.That the 3 major Iraqi groups can/want to work together to build a real Iraqi national identity. Sure they talk about it while they kill each other.