This is a problem that has been simmering for years and is the next big challenge for the Iraqi government.The Kurds and their tough, well trained military the pesh merga, have been quietly moving out of their autonomous region in the north and have virtually taken over several ethnically mixed towns and villages in provinces that border their territory.I have written before about the tension in Kirkuk between Kurds and Arabs with violence occassionally breaking out between the two sides. The Kurds claim Kirkuk because so much of their oil wealth goes through the city while the Arabs see the entire area as part of their territory. The Kurds also believe they have a historic claim to the region, having been driven out of these ethnically mixed areas by Saddam Hussein many years ago.But the Kurdish incursion goes far beyond Kirkuk as this article in the Washington Post makes clear:Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory...(Read Full Post)