I came across this pretty good link today giving a nice brief insight into the region of Iraq and its neighbours. The chart displayed at the end of the clip gives very revealing stats on population 'distinctions. Give it a lookk-through... you'll find it revealing; especially with what's going on with the Kurds and Turkey.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17722026

Thanks Hell Fighter... finally I can understand better what the hell is going on and why... now the politicians and people who say "just pull out" look like uninformed fools... beware politicians who say " when I am elected the first thing I will do is pull our troops out of Iraq"....

We know what would happen next.... Very insightful

I posted the 'guide' as an info tool -so those of us interested can determine personal opinions on the 'breadth' of pull-out options-like you've just done. The Dems on the nbc debate last night definately covered the range of pull-out options... I'm for a pull-out; but I guess -except for neo-cons and cheney- we're all varied in opinions as to 'how much/how fast'; Clinton imo slam-dunked the issue compared to Edwards 'pull-out right away' scheme, with the reality of the withdrawal process -ie, keeping special ops there and a somewhat significant minimal force for embassy securty and the US continuation of training Iraqi forces.

Even though Bush and Cheney continue to drone on about al quaeda as the threat, even most repubs are now seeing the light that the Iraq 'saga' is far beyond al quaeda's 'off-balancing' strategy in Iraq.
Secterian civil war has yet to fully play-out if the antagonists stirring up religious rivalries get their way. Even militant Shiite groups are starting to bash at each other for power.

From what I saw in the stats chart at the end, the Iraq and Iran 'area' is the home base for Shiites-so you can definately see why Shiite Iran [ Shiites- the minority in the muslim world] wants to grab influence/power in Iraq away from the majority Sunnis in the surrounding Arab states.

Also, you get the idea the Sunnis are now fed up with bum-laden Iraq and Arab areas. So my worry is now if Bush makes the flawed 'show of power' air-strikes against Iran, the backlash could be awful - hitting a known nuke weapon facility is one thing, but hitting targets for a show could unleash a new wave of terror -one bum-Laden is waiting for a good 'promo' reason to restart his own new campaign perhaps to seek 'popularity' with extreme Shiites- seems like he always strikes on the heels of the West/Bush admin making the worst move possible that stirs up anti-West hostility amongst the jihadists.

What a disaster!! Thanks Hellfighter for posting that, it sure is an informative video.

And it's only 5-10mins long -for those who think it may be too long to view - a fraction of my long-winded posts ...and it has pictures!