If and when the United States withdraws its troops from Iraq, it
will have to consider the future of Kurdistan. While a partition
is officially anathema, everyone knows the link between the
Kurdish enclave in the north and the rest of Iraq is tenuous.
Baghdad's only hope of preventing hard partition is to provide
the Kurds with a path toward the global economy. Kurds might be
willing to live with the Iraqi project if the strong federalism
protecting their autonomy is constitutionally upheld, and if-IF-
the insurgency finally subsides, giving Kurdish businesses
access to Basra-Iraq's only port. Other than that, Iraq has
nothing to offer the Kurds, who are naturally more likely to
gravitate toward Turkey or Iran. If everyone would smarten up,
Kurdistan and Turkey could be the best things to happen to each
other. Kurdistan came into its own in 1991, when the United
Nations Security Council passed Resolution 688 to stop Baghdad's
reprisals against Kurdish insurgents. Enforced by the United
States Air Force, UNSC 6