Reply #4: A forgone conclusion as National Geographic pointed out in current issue [View All]

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/feature1/index.html

It was a good read that meshes well with this article.

The Kurds in Control

By Frank Viviano
Photographs by Ed Kashi

The Kurds may be the only group powerful enough to keep Iraq from tearing itself apart. But who says that's what they want?


Since the aftermath of the 1991 gulf war, nearly four million Kurds have enjoyed complete autonomy in the region of Iraqi Kurdistan—protected from Saddam under a "no-fly zone" north of the 36th parallel and behind the defensive wall of the Kurds' highly disciplined army, the peshmerga. They have held region-wide elections, formed a legislature, and chosen a president, establishing a world entirely apart from Baghdad—a de facto independent state. For the first time in their long history, Kurds are wielding significant political power, successfully negotiating for control over their own military forces and authority over new oil discoveries in their own terrain. Under the federated Iraq being called for by the international community, they would have powers of autonomy that match—or even exceed—what they now enjoy.

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