Readers are largely in agreement with my suggestion that, whatever else we do in Iraq, we should make sure we do not lose a free Kurdistan:
Yes. Please hammer on this. No matter what anyone concludes about the viability of the surge in southern Iraq, troop withdrawal dates and the war in general, abandoning Iraqi Kurdistan should be flat-out taken off the table by all sides. Unlike the rest of Iraq, the Kurds like us, are grateful for our help and want us to stay. They are precisely the sort of ally that we desperately need in the region, and moreover we owe it to them, in light of our abandonment at the end of the first gulf war. Michael Totten's interview with a Peshmerga colonel is an excellent example.
Both Democrats and Republicans need to be reminded of this. Republicans especially need to realize by refusing to compromise on the war for long enough, when they inevitably lose the political argument, they risk ending up with a total withdrawal that abandons one of our only real allies in the muslim world. A deal now that leaves us committed to defending Kurdistan allows them to at least save face by having one success story to point to.