The Kurds want their federalism

■"Iraqi Kurds Detail Their Strong Demands for Autonomy," by Edward Wong, New York Times, 18 February 2005, p. A8.

The Shiites need the Kurds to rule Iraq and the Kurds' price is real federalism that gives them substantial autonomy.

This is the end of the unitary state that was Iraq, and the sort of federalism that emerges here can be one scary model for the rest of the Middle East.

Clear losers? Sunnis. They lose the power and the control of the energy.