For a long time the Kurds have succeeded in forming an independant government. It existed unter the Northern No Fly Zone. It has flourished and there is no denying them their dream now.
Their diplomats admit to needing help in defending their burgeoning nation from many fronts of conflict. Let's face it, no one wants an oil rich region to become their own nation and remove it's assets from any treasury.
They would like the USA to have a presence in Kurdistan but I doubt they would want an aggressive USA military that didn't respect other nations of the region.
At any rate, that is a separate discussion.
The war in Iraq is overwhelmingly a sectarian war. It is not about terrorists. Even recently, Bush has admitted there are sectarian dangers far greater than al Qaeda. Sectarian violence is not going to stop UNTIL the ethnicities have autonomous borders that are defendable and given the chance to do that. Pointing to the success of these ethnicities to secure peace is the fact that the Shi'ite Najaf has not seen a single American soldier death in over two years. There has been no reason to confront these people as they are 'managing just fine' under the leadership of their Holy Men.
If Iraq is to stop the sectarian violence it has to be allowed to divide their country into three autonomous provinces. I have discussed this at length on this blog.
If Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney 'start the war over again' as they want to, the chaos will be greater and the resolve of the people ALREADY engaged in portioning Iraq will be more vicious in their military attacks than ever before. The USA will become enemies and not just occupiers.
The Kurds are against any outcomes from The Iraq Study Group for one primary reason and that it dissolves their drive toward sovereignty and reestablishes the Kurds under a single govenrment called Iraq. These people are too scared to proceed in any other direction than autonomy. They and Shi'ites were brutally killed under an Iraq Dictator. They won't risk it again.
Iraq needs to be left upto the Iraqis.
