ISIS on the offensive in Iraq

[Viking]

Anyway, Viking, you are comparing apples to oranges. Sweden-Norway was not one country, but a union of two. We're talking about splitting countries, not unions with well-defined borders between countries.

Iraqi Kurdistan has it's own flag, parliament, language (Kurdish is Indo-European while Arabic is Semitic) and official borders. It's more like comparing two types of apples.

The general point is that I can't see why splitting up Iraq will result in peace&prosperity&unicorns rather than brutal wars of dominance and border drawing. Ie. Yugoslavia.

Or you could say that Yugoslavia should never have been created in the first place as it had a high likelihood of leading to conflict.

And the current French republic sees a lot of resentment and hostility between the Occitans and Bretons? Several harmonious nationstates have been created in the French way. Eventually, like the border wars, the resentment will go away. Eventually, the feelings of identity will (all but) disappear.

The French state was created in a different time. The role of central authority has changed a lot since then. Things like schoolbooks, official languages and media broadcasts change the way minorities experience the force of the central authorities. They make the contrasts between them and the majority/other groups more actively felt in everyday life and can inspire a greater awareness of own group identity, herein a desire to protect it.