Good for us and the Kurds. Kirkuk belongs to the Kurds, and (sorry for those innocents caught in the fighting) I have zero sympathy for the Turks and Arabs (politically). A strong Kurdistan (as an authonous region, yet not a state) will be good for our strategic interests in the region. BTW the Kurds have proven to be worth of our support, something most other Muslim people have yet to do.
The Kurdish government was set up with the help of Gen Garner, the same person who was sent to Iraq to help form the civilian government after the liberation. But it seems the State Department(read Colin Powell) insisted it should be done by the State Department instead of the Pentagon. Hence, the reign of Paul Bremer and the decline into the hell it became. Can you imagine what Iraq would look like today if Gen Garner had been allowed to do what he did in Kurdistan?