I don't quite understand how the professionals in all the intelligence organisations in the US and Britain and everywhere else could have missed this. Iraq as a single nation is a fabrication of the British Foreign Office, created between the wars in an attempt to stabilise the area and retain control of strategic resources. The same resources that Bush et al are trying to retain control of now. Oil.

The reallity of the situation is that the ethnic Kurds to the north, and the ethnic Arabs to the south, will never be able to co-habit as one united country without the leadership of one strong individual. By removing Saddam from power and destroying his regime, that strongman and any possible successors were removed. Of course a war will erupt between the Kurds and the Arabs as soon as the Allied forces are evacuated from the place, if in fact they wait that long.

I f anyone ( read - the American Government as those in effectual control ) is really interested in preserving or creating stability in the area, the obvious thing to do is to allow the country to split. Get the leaders of both sides together and encourage them to reach agreement as to a common border between north and south. As long as the economic advantages are fairly split, I doubt there would be many other problems, as niether group wants to live under the domination of the other, and I suspect from this article that they would be fairly evenly matched.

Done properly, this could result in a win for ALL parties, but if world powers favour one side over the other, and I fear that they will favour the Arabs over the Kurds if past ( recent ) history is any guide,then I think that all hell will break loose...again. And then everyone will eventually lose.