That's why I chose the timeframe I did. "Iraq" (the region we now call Iraq) was stable when it was Mesopotamia / Sumeria / Babylon / Assyria. Ever since Islam crashed into Kurdistan (about 1400 years ago), those two sides could only coexist while under the thumb of one of the occupying powers you mention or a brutal, internally-generated despot. The Kurds only get along with one group of people - the Kurds. Sunnis and Shi'ites haven't traditionally played nice in their parallel Islamic histories either (like catholics and protestants

). They certainly don't teach the building of constitutions for this kind of cultural mix in the Public Administration, Public Policy, or International Development Degree programs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government!!
