National Geographic gets it right.

[Warren Stupidity]

The Kurds in Control - in the current issue of the magazine - is a portrait of a region with no illusions about the future of Iraq.
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/feature1/index.html

"But in the end, the essential Kurdish truth today is that they can't give up the dream of outright independence. After 14 years of self-rule, the Kurds can no longer imagine themselves as Iraqis. To travel through Kurdistan is to follow an intense national debate whose central issue is no longer the pros and cons of full, unambiguous separation from Iraq. It's how best to secure it. I came to think of it as a debate between Builders and Warriors."

This article, in its own understated way, puts the whole Bush Cabal Iraqi Mission rev 4.0: A Nation at Peace, to the lie. There is no Iraq. The civil war and the reconstitution of the region into its ethnic components is the reality on the ground.

If you can read the full article you should. It includes a chilling account of an encounter with american special forces - out of uniform and out of control, referred to locally as the 'Rambos'.

What are we doing? What have we done? Eventually the bill for all of our crimes will come due.

[Karenina]

1. Breaking the shackles of colonialism

In my language class 2 years agi we were all called upon to introduce ourselves and tell from whence we hailed. I'll not soon forget H. who announced that she was from Kurdistan... I got an education from her.

[xchrom]

2. self determination for kurdish people

is a laudable goal -- but you're right it underscores the current disaster that we have built.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Before this ends we will be killing kurds.

I agree that of course the Kurdish people have the right to self determination. But our leaders are stuck in a bind, they have made commitments, they have plans, they have invested their massive egos in the success of their Project Iraqi Freedom. They are not going to allow the Kurds to leave without a fight. Turkey is not going to allow an independent Kurdistan. Syria and Iran have Kurdish populations, like the Turks, and find the idea of a free Kurdistan intolerable. We have created a mess of staggering proportions and our leaders don't even seem to understand just how bad it is and how truly horrible it may soon get. Read the article. It is really very dark.