Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
I think it goes like this:

The Kurds want ≥ 2 states; the exact number is not important as long as they get their own lawn.

The Shias and Sunnis both want a united Iraq where their own ideas are the ones that are put into life.
I understand that. Absent intervention by a larger power willing to bleed for it for a goodly while, neither the shia nor the sunni (yes that's a simplification, but I will run with it) will be able to impose their will on the other and certainly not on the other two.

I agree with RVG's sentiment about ISIS, but I see no one in the offing willing to pay the blood price to crush them. Perhaps, and I mean perhaps, they can be savaged enough that a less radical successor group takes charge...but even then I think it would be more like Fatah/Hamas situation than anything cohesive.

Functionally, I see a 3-state Iraq as the only potentiality for stability -- aside from a half century of occupation.