Greater War in the Middle East

"Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.
[...]
The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga -- the Kurdish militia -- and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted." --Knight Ridder, December 28, 2005

Knight Ridder reports today that there are 10,000 Kurdish Peshmerga forces within the Iraqi Army awaiting orders to invade Kirkuk and create an independent state. This would be the opening battle in a war that would spread throughout the region. If the Kurds set up an independent state, the Kurds in Turkey and Iran would also likely rebel and try to join Iraqi Kurdistan. In response, Turkey (and possibly Iran) along with the Iraqi government army would invade Northern Iraq, the Shiites in the South of the country would likely ally themselves with the Iranians and the already-in-progress civil war between Sunnis and Shiites would escalate.