Happy Anniversary?

Our Kurdish Arabic instructor brought in treats today to celebrate the anniversary (yesterday) of the Fall of Bagdad. He's been trying to convince us that most Iraqis like Americans and are in fact better off than they were under Saddam. He makes many good points, and he has been back to Iraq recently, and I have not, so I'll have to suspend judgement until I get some hands on experience.

The Kurds may be our only hope in the region - perhaps we should just break the country up and pour support into to Kurdistan (Turks be damned) while the Sunnis and Iranian backed Shias slug it out. No Western Army will be able to fight and win against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that is likey building up and controling the Shia forces, because our publics won't support the kind of fighting and tactics the Sunnis will engage them with. Maybe we should just step out -- divide and rule has worked before, and may be much less costly (for us) than a straight-up victory.