The Lessons of Indian Independence on Iraqi Independence

The always introspective Peggy Noonan has been meditating on the process of Indian Independence, and how some bad decisions (specifically the partitioning of Indian to create Pakistan) have lead to a bloodbath. What can be learned from this?

The leaders of the day did not know that terrible violence was coming because of what I think is a classic and structural problem of leadership: It distances. Each of these men was to varying degrees detached from facts on the ground. They were by virtue of their position and accomplishments an elite. They no longer knew what was beating within the hearts of those who lived quite literally on the ground. Nehru, Mountbatten, Jinnah--they well knew that Muslims feared living under the rule of the Hindus, that Hindus feared living under Muslims, that Sikhs feared both. But the leaders did not know the fear that was felt was so deep, so constitutional, so passionate. They did not know it would find its expression in a savagery so wild and widespread.

This may explain a lot of both what went right, and what went wrong in opposition to common wisdom in Iraq.