Juan Cole has a great post today on the Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere, and how this whole U.S.-occupation-of-Iraq thing could lead to bigger problems.

[T]here is at the least an issue in the Kurdish terrorist groups that are operating from US-occupied Iraq against Iraq’s neighbors. The US is not able to stop the PKK from operating against an ally, Turkey, so I don’t think it could stop the Iranian Kurdish terrorists, PEJAK, from operating against Iran. But it is also probably true that there are elements in the US military, in the intelligence services, and in the Washington power elite that are connected to PEJAK and are either happy about its activities or subtly enabling them.

It’s a lot of speculation, hearsay, and other inconclusive whatnot, but it is worth being reminded that there is a whole nation in the region that spans several countries and may piss off a lot of said countries while getting pretty pissed itself. Kurdistan was supposed to become a separate state after World War I, but it didn’t happen. Now Kurdistan exists in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, and slivers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, among the largest distinct ethnic groups without their own state. The Iraqi Kurds have done alright since 1991, but things can get complicated really fast for all of Kurdistan if we’re not paying attention. And we’re not.