Iraq should begin considering what it will do if Iraqi President Jalal Talabani dies. If they start considerations now, the transition of power will be much smoother.

On December 2, rioters allegedly stirred up by preachers at Friday prayers rampaged through Zakho, destroying a controversial massage parlor before moving on to torch several liquor shops and hotels. In retaliation, a mob of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) activists attacked the local office of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) and KIU media offices in nearby Duhok and Semel.

Every Kurdish official, foreign businessman, or diplomat, knows that regional leader Masud Barzani and his immediate family have far greater power than Kurdistan’s constitution indicates.

Hay's mission was to establish civil administration as the British took control of Iraq from Ottoman authorities.

Kurdistan has made incredible progress and enjoys sympathy from the West, but the murder of a 23-year-old journalist threatens to undermine the region's promising future.

Iraqi Kurdistan has achieved miracles since 1991, but it needs intellectuals, including journalists, to continue to move forward.

If Iraqi Kurdish leaders had the power to prevent the Turks from acquiring the tools of massacre but did not, they should be willing to explain why, or be forced to acknowledge they use the rhetoric of Kurdish empowerment insincerely.

Obama's foreign policy style is akin to a gambler at a blackjack table who wants to sit at the table' but place his bets only after the dealer has laid out the cards.