The Kurds, who number 20-25 million, are the largest ethnic group in the world without their own nation. They were first mentioned in Sumerian writings in 3000 BC. What has been known as Kurdistan for more than 2500 years is spread across the northern portion of Iraq, and includes about one-third of eastern Turkey, and parts of Syria and Iran. Saddam Hussein was not the first to try to eliminate them. Every power broker in the area since the days of Darius have done so. The Kurds continue to survive. They have no friends but the mountains.
The Kurdish language has managed to survive despite efforts by Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and every conqueror who came through the area. Likewise, their culture has unbroken links to the past. They are mostly Muslim, yet view their religion in a way most Americans view our own. It does not define their way of life or politics. Their brand of Islam retains some characteristics of Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians were led by the Magi, and some of these “wise men” visited Jesus in Bethlehem.
Saladin is most familiar historical name of all Kurds. He was born in Tikrit, Saddam’s home town. Kurdish home town. Sunnis fight with Shiites, and everyone fights the Kurds. Yet the Kurds survive. And even when the US has treated them badly or ignored them, they have retained a sense of kinship with Americans. They have little use for Europeans who agreed to the Treaty of S?vres, which outlined an autonomous Kurdistan, then rescinded it with the Treaty of Lausanne (both in 1923) to divide them among other nation-states.
Oil fields in Iraq are located in the southern, Shia area, and in the northern, Kurdish area. Much of the Sunni part of Iraq is wasteland. The Kurdish area contains oil, many minerals, and excellent farm land. It is landlocked, but a superbly viable region for autonomy.
With all the problems in Iraq, I would love to be Emperor for a Day. I would do only two things: Disband the United Nations, and hand over the northern portion of Iraq to the Kurds as an independent Kurdistan. Let the Sunni and Shia fight among themselves, as they apparently like to do, to decide who controls the southern oil fields and port of Basra. I would even give them Tikrit, and put up a strong border checkpoint which leads out of the north of the city. I would simply request a military base in Kirkuk or Mosul to station US troops and aircraft in a location convenient to trouble areas.
The Kurds have never shown any inclination to expand their territory in their entire history. They fight hard, but don’t go looking for fights. I cannot imagine a more stable democracy ever being established in the Middle East.
And you can bet it would make the French mad.