Conclusion

Abstract

This book has shown how for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East that began with the end of World War I, a cautious solution to the Kurdish problem in Iraq and Turkey at least is evolving. The KRG in Iraq has taken significant, positive steps toward Kurdish unity, democratization, and modernization. What is more, the KRG has become an island of peace in the sea of Iraqi violence. The ultimate problem, of course, is who will guarantee these achievements? The United States has betrayed the Kurds twice in the past (1975 and 1991) and can hardly wait to pull its troops out of Iraq now. The Iraq Study Group Report, cochaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton and released in December 2006, also suggested that the hard-won Kurdish federal state might have to be sacrificed to the perceived need for a reestablished centralized Iraqi state. The UN guarantee would only be as good as the perilous unity of the Security Council’s five permanent members. As for the neighboring states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, at the present time wolves might as well be invited in to watch over the lamb.