Bob, I wish it was that simple, strategic understanding is biased by political correctness and a lot of other factors involving the individuals seeking that understanding. Action may or not be politically correct. Some would argue using drones to kill U.S. citizens in Yemen may not have been politically correct.
As for dividing Iraq, there was a recent statement made by either the President or his Press secretary that the U.S. policy was to support a united Iraq. That policy could change in time, but we all are aware of another situation where division of a country was supposed to lead a better peace, and that was UK's division of India to include West and East Pakistan. The actual division of the country resulted in up to a million killed during the migrations to one side or the other. Then it resulted in several wars, and still they have border skirmishes and are one of the more likely locations for a nuclear weapon exchange. Dividing the country won't be easy, and it will be most likely be very violent, so I'm not sure Turkey or any other country in the region wants to see a divided Iraq.
Interesting report from CSIS
http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pub...vidingiraq.pdf
Dividing Iraq: Think Long and Hard First
Recent elections have made it clear, however, that its cities and 18
governorates all have significant minorities, and any effort to divide the country would require massive relocations.
Moreover, Iraq is heavily urbanized, with nearly 40% of the population in the
divided Baghdad and Mosul areas. Kirkuk is already a powder keg, and Basra is
the subject of Shi’ite Islamist “cleansing.” Ulster and the Balkans have already
shown how difficult it is to split cities, and with Iraq’s centralized and failing
infrastructure, and impoverished economy, violence and economics cannot be
separated.
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