The Iraqi parliament has passed a federalism bill that will allow the regions to become semi-autonomus states. Opponents of the bill boycotted, but a quorum was obtained. As a federalist, I think this should have been done from the begining, especially given the sectarian and racial issues that were bubbling under the surface during the Hussein years. If this is too late, though, that is another issue.
I look forward to a "turkmen-frei" and "assyrian-frei" Kurdistan as Barzani's thugs have been anything but pluralists and beacons of tolerance. Federalism in principle is necessary, but the right protections for minorities in the Kurdish region have not ben introduced. But the Kurds are such good friends of the US, so how can anyone speak the truth about their rising ethnic supremacy complex in Iraq.
I say give the kurds their own nation and the US should move all our troops currently in Iraq there. We should define the borders and also help make sure that they don't cause problems for Turkey. In fact I think some sort of treaty should be a priority between Turkey and the Kurds that could address the issues that the 2 sides have with each other.
"Give the Kurds their own nation." What is meant by that? There is no such thing as a homogenous Kurdistan. What you should be talking about is an independent nation in the north in which the Kurdish majority would take into account the rights of Assyrians, Turkmen, Armenians, Yezidis and Arabs in their midst. It's kind of the same thing with Kosovo, where it is should not be an Albanian monolith, but the minority Turks, Serbs, Bosniaks and Roma deserve to claim their piece of the Kosovo identity too.
Trouble will start on the mix areas that sectarian militias will do ethnic cleansing to "create" a factual boundary before the discussion of the legal boundary. A LOT of human blood wait to be spill.
I would say alot of human blood has already been spilled. Maybe it is just way past time to do a Yugoslavia to Iraq and split it up along sectarian lines?
The problem is that there is NO a clear cut line you can draw. There are big areas with good population who live mixed. Now since there is a need to split along the sectarian line, so militias from both sides would try to "create" one by killings.