As the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — which now wants to be called the Islamic State — threatens to shatter Iraq’s central government, the leaders of Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government have called for the creation of Independent Kurdistan. In June, KRG President Massoud Barzani said, “the time is here for the Kurdistan people to determine their future.”

I doubt Barzani intentionally echoed Woodrow Wilson‘s post-World War I call for political self-determination. Kurdish nationalists believe, with good cause, they were grievously wronged after World War I.