Iraqi Kurdistan: Wait a minute! I thought Iraq was a failed war, a tragic disaster, and nobody had an ounce of appreciation for what America's done. Oh, I forgot, only bad news sells newspapers and increases television viewership, but every once in a while, the truth manages to squeak through.

Try to imagine a peaceful and stable Iraq where business is
booming and Americans are beloved. Now open your eyes because
(there is) a part of Iraq which fits that description: it's called
Kurdistan. Technically, it's inside Iraq but the Kurds who live
there behave as if they already live in a separate state. They have
their own prime minister, their own army, their own border patrol,
even their own flag. And the overwhelming majority of Kurds will
tell you they want nothing to do with Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.
And why would they after the brutal way Iraqis under Saddam treated
them in the past? Why would they when they’re doing just fine on
their own? -- 60 Minutes (CBS)

All very true. The Kurdish flag is everywhere. The only remaining attachment to Iraq is the use of the currency. I traveled here with a close friend. We were treated very well and I felt safer than I ever felt in any country in Central and South America. Not convinced?

Asked how many American soldiers have been killed in the Kurdish-controlled
area since the beginning of the war, Nechervan Barzani, the 40-year-old prime
minister of what is officially called the Kurdistan Regional Government,
replied "No one." -- 60 Minutes (CBS)

But who exactly are the Kurds? And why should we care about them?

Kurds like to tell people that they are the largest nation in the world
without a state of their own. There are roughly 25 million of them,
predominantly non-Arab Muslims practicing a traditionally tolerant variant
of Islam. Most live in the region where Iraq, Turkey and Iran meet.
-- Smithsonian Magazine

So why cheer about America's disposal of Saddam Hussein? Because behind the non-stop America bashing that's been taking place over the last several years, one simple fact has been lost -- Saddam Hussein treated the Kurds like animals.

In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein sought to solve the Kurdish problem by
eliminating them in vast numbers; as many as 200,000 died on his orders,
often in chemical weapons attacks. Thousands of villages were destroyed.
Survivors who had lived by farming were herded into cities where they
subsisted on government handouts. -- Smithsonian Magazine

Here's the tricky part. The Kurds and Turks are traditionally enemies, but America is friends with both of them. So how can the Kurdish problem be solved without alienating one or the other? Ironically, the solution may lie with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a terrorist organization that insists on creating a Kurdish nation extending deep into southeast Turkey. America does not support them, Turkey is at war with them, and most Kurds are smart enough to see that the PKK is sabotaging their window of opportunity to have their own nation -- or at least the closest thing resembling one. That's precisely why America is providing intelligence to Turkey to assist their recent cross-border incursions against them. The PKK, it seems, are of no help to anyone except themselves, much like the Taliban and Hamas.

When the PKK detonated a bomb and blew up a Turkish military bus in the center of Diyarbakir (Turkey) just days before I arrived there, I thought to myself these guys are pretty much finished. This can only unite Turks and Kurds in Turkey against the PKK. Oh, and their apology for killing bystanders in that attack. Yeah, right! Put down your weapons and join the future. It's sitting in your lap.

So here we are, left with several unanswered questions on how this is all going to play out: