There is increasing activity at US bases in Kuwait and other Persian Gulf countries. More troops are moving in, usually for training exercises. But a steady stream of new equipment and other war supplies are arriving.

The two main factions (PUK and KDP) in northern Iraq signed a US brokered peace accord. The main reason Kurds have never been able to form a nation is because they are split into many factions that would rather fight each other than struggle for a united Kurdistan. Some 3,000 Kurds died in factional fighting in the late 1990s, halted only by US threats to withdraw aid and protection from Iraq.