Well One May Ask!

To the Editor: Roger Cohen (column, Sept. 13) considers an Iraq breakup “unthinkable.” Why? What is so sacred about the artificial colonial borders? Why is “democracy” in conflict with self-determination? Why should the Sunnis and Kurds be ruled by the Shiites? Or in Kosovo, what is so wrong with a referendum, which might result in the Serb-populated areas voting to return to Serbia? Who are we to set the borders of other nations? How would we feel if they did it to us? Béla Lipták Stamford, Conn., Sept. 13, 2007