they have annexed kirkuk and other territories that are disputed. so you have a border issue. iran does not want to see the independence of iraqi kurdistan, because then its own kurds will want its land. turkey has enough shovels with its kurds. the kurds inside turkey have been calling for equal rights in a democratic turkey, not for independence. and then you have the kurds in south syria. so, the danger is -- not the danger, the challenge is if iraqi kurdistan gets independence, how do you negotiate where that border will be? manage the knock on effect? so we start to see the breakdown of those states. david: we will take that as basically a caution -- be careful about a immature declaration -- premature declaration that iraq is or has come undone, that the structure is in the interest of the countries in the region and also, probably, the u.s. evan, i want to come back to your point about the stability, farsightedness of the post-1945 world order, and ask you, by extension, what was missing in 1918 and after? was the problem that america came home after that war and did no

the oil fields of kirkuk.ds have an historical claim in the city which they call their jerusalem. but taking it is about more than national pride. it gave the kurds the one thing their semiautonomous area was missing. a stable stream of revenue. >> do you see any scenario in which the iraqi kurds give up those oil fields that you've taken by force. >> not by force. >> trueops went in there and dug a trench around the whole thing. >> we were there even before daesh came. >> so you retook an area that was always yours? >> we managed to reverse it. >> in the middle east there are a lot of conflicts going on for a long time. >> a lot of conflicts and so on but rights must be right. >> there's no such thing as a nice divorce. >> there isn't, but there could be an amicable divorce. >> who gets the oil in this divorce? >> well, at the moment, the kurds are exporting it and. >> and they'll keep it? >> well, i hope so. >> but that hope is met with combative warnings from the government in baghdad and threats from shiit

a significant southeast of mosul and southwest of kirkuk called the awagea pocket that sits aside the main communication from baghdad to mosul. they have to secure that area. we'll see the iraqi army swing that way. we've already seen a lot of reconnaissance activity, movement of forces into that area. i think that will be the next battleground. not to take away from the iraqis have done. this is a big victory for the iraqs, the necessary initial first step, but there are other areas they have to address. including this pocket, as i said, and importantly, the euphrates valley up to the syrian border. >> with all that, barbara, how will the u.s. military be utilized or involved? >> reporter: clearly the u.s. will take very much a leading role in overhead reconnaissance, aircraft and drones flying overhead almost constantly looking for isis targets, just as rick was saying. to go after them. you can have troops on the ground, but they're going to have to have aircraft overhead, patrolling these vast areas and look for the isis targets. securing strategic lines of communication. securing

by mid-2014, isis controlled nearly a third of the country, threatening kirkuk in the north and the capitaly, baghdad. only three years after he had pulled out all u.s. troops, president obama started sending americans back in. >> we don't have a strategy at all. we're basically sort of playing this day to day. >> supported by u.s. troops, weapons, and training, the iraqi army gradually stopped the isis advance and now has forced it out of the major cities it once held. i caught up with david petraeus to ask what went wrong with his grand strategy. did we withdraw too soon? >> what created the fertile fields for the planting of the seeds of extremism once again in iraq was the prime minister's actions to go after the senior sunni arab politicians and essentially undo the efforts of reconciliation that he and we had done together during the surge. >> now mosul has been taken. it's on to raqqah. can mosul hold? >> the question is not can you defeat the islamic state. it's can you then achieve governance that avoids re-establishment of fields that are fertile for the planting of the seeds of e