Agreed, We could leave Iraq a peaceful, prosperous democracy, and people will still protest and criticize us :-)
The problem is, we should be creating about 3-4 countries out of Iraq. England and France and whoever else (probably Turkey, although I'm not sure if they had any influence after the Ottoman Empire fell) created one of the worst drawn nations in existence. The only reason Iraq wasn't like this during Saddam's reign, was because he brutally oppressed the other ethnic groups.
No matter what, I hope the Kurds come out of this okay. They have been **** upon by just about everybody around them, and they still managed to keep functioning educational systems and somewhat of a democratic system going.
The Kurds have been doing well. They are a good group.