Can Kurds in Iraq unite as US troops withdraw from the country?

On September 21, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq officially announced the completion of the long-delayed unification and reorganization of its Peshmerga paramilitary forces under the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPA). The Peshmerga are Kurdish armed forces, with roots going back to Kurdish guerrillas who fought as a more or less united front against successive Iraqi governments for most of the 20th century. After the 2003 invasion, though, they never came together as one Kurdish national army. Instead, they split into two separate party forces, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Ku