The Kurds of northern Iraq have taken the degree of autonomy they were granted under Iraq’s constitution and stretched it to its outer limit, signing major agreements with oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil and even going so far as to establish informal diplomatic relations with Turkey. With Syrian Kurds crossing the border and settling in northern Iraq, Kurdistan is becoming stronger, and more stable, and is increasingly looking and acting more like an independent state. Will it break away from Iraq and declare its independence? Maybe. But not without a fight from Baghdad in what could erupt in another Iraq war.

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