In the On-Deck Circle?

I've mentioned that the Iranian-backed Sadrists are the last real armed threat we have to defeat in Iraq. Not that the other nationalist Sunni Arab, al Qaeda, and Baathist enemies aren't still there in rump form, but they are declining threats as long as we pursue them. And not that we don't face non-military threats to success. Corruption will be a major challenge.

I've even wondered if the next armed threat will arise in the Kurdish region of Iraq:

Barring massively escalated Iranian assistance to Sadr or other Shia death squads, up to actual Iranian forces, I've had trouble seeing where the next threat to our success in Iraq could arise. The Arab-Kurd divide is surely one area that could generate a crisis.

I hope the Kurds don't mistake their prosperity of late for a glimpse of their independent future. I hope that Turkish and Iranian attacks on Kurdish territory remind the Kurds of Iraq that making Iraq their enemy is foolish. Their safety lies in remaining a partner within Iraq.

What I didn't consider is that a Kurdish threat to the central government of Iraq might not be Iraqi Kurds.

This article indicates this might possibly be true, if the statement of the Iranian Kurd (PEJAK) is true:

"We have changed our stand toward the United States government and we are standing against them now," she said. "Maybe some day ... individual combatants might launch suicide attacks inside Iraq and Turkey, and even against American
interests."

Which is odd. Given our mutual hatred of the Tehran regime, you'd think they'd want our help rather than placing themselves between a rock and a hard place (so to speak).

And remember this threat isn't from the PKK, which operates out of Iraq to fight inside Turkey, and which we (rightly) consider a terrorist group. So the threat doesn't mean too much, really. Iranian Kurds could kill and extend the fighting in Iraq (to Iran's benefit) but they couldn't actually threaten Iraq unless such fighting splits the Iraqi Kurds from the national government. Much like having to fight Sadr carefully to avoid offending Iraqi Shias, we'd have to fight Iranian Kurds carefully to avoid threatening Iraqi Kurds.

I'm just saying I could be wrong about the Sadrists being the last military threat inside Iraq that we need to defeat.

Of course, this assumes that Iran and/or Syria don't invade Iraq with conventional forces in a desperate attempt to reverse their creeping defeat.