I want tw's thoughts on...

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The energy appetite is causing the tradeoff of risk. If there were cheap oil available, they wouldn't do that.

Yes, cheap oil is one possible solution. I hope there are others because "cheap oil" is rapidly approaching a status somewhere between "hen's teeth" and "rocking-horse shit".
And I love it when a thread drifts back. So, with the Kurdish region being one of Iraq's most productive oil regions, and that oil being mostly sent through a pipeline through Turkey ... cheap oil? GOOD LUCK!

IMHO ... Kurdistan is a natural nation, a geographically continuous area filled (mostly) with one group of people unified by language, culture and religion, who believe themselves to be such a group. But it has been carved up amongst Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Tensions will continue to simmer here until these four nations cede their claims to the territory and stop keeping the Kurds when the Kurds don't want to be kept.
Ah, but what would that do to Iraq? Yeah, problem...