Iraq Intact

(from the BC "Crossroads" thread)
Annoy Mouse,
(who mentioned Biden's plan for dividing Iraq into 3 states)

The reason that carving Iraq up is a bad idea is because of the neighbors.
Let us take them in clockwise order.
1) Turkey, liable to solve domestic problems by stomping on Kurds over
     the border. Best dissuaded from developing Putinesque fantasies of
     resurrecting an old empire.
2) Iran, actively engaging in attempting to revive an empire that on the eve
     of Islam reached as far as Egypt.
3) Kuwait, they really were using slant drilling to steal oil from Saddam.
4) Saudi Arabia, unstable target of al-Qeada exports suicidal unemployable
     Wahabi youths.
5) Syria, ruled by Ba'ath party fascists controlled by the tiny minority
     Alawite clan.

Iran and Syria are Russian clients and Turkey and KSA have recently moved to sign agreements with Russia. Creating s set of smaller states in the middle would be equivalent to dropping a box of kittens into a dog pound. The Kuwaitis and the Gulf Cooperation Council states must be looking at the situation and weighing their options.