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Will the Kurds Fight Iran for the U.S., Again?
Will the Kurds fight the government in Tehran at Washington’s urging, opening a new ground front in Iran? The U.S. seemingly wants them to, but the Kurds and Washington have a sordid history on this topic. What will Kurdish leaders advise their people to do?
Imagine you are one of those Kurdish leaders today, say age mid-sixties. You grew up hearing your elders talk of Sykes–Picot, the 1916 agreement secretly negotiated during World War I to divide the collapsing Ottoman Empire into zones of Western influence. The Kurds, along with others, were promised their own homelands. Instead, Kurdish-inhabited lands home to some 30 million people were split by decree among what would later become Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Whole nations, such as Iraq, were casually sketched on to a map of the Middle East (those impossibly straight border lines you see today on a modern map) to match European power schemes. Although Sykes and its follow-ons were not signed by the U.S. (which was too weak then to play power politics with the Europeans) the Western abandonment of Kurdish statehood was set: Kurdish aspirations would be subordinated to the geopolitical priorities of stronger states. As a Kurdish young man, these were your early lessons.
The post-WWII rise of American power did little to make the Kurds feel the West saw them as anything more than cannon fodder. U.S. foreign policy focused on maintaining stable alliances with Turkey and the Shah’s Iran as critical bulwarks against Soviet influence. Supporting Kurdish independence would have threatened those alliances, as both sought to put down their Kurdish minorities. The U.S. briefly sent arms via Israel and Iran to the Kurds, but more to use them as troublemakers to keep Saddam Hussein on his toes. Even that minor effort ended abruptly with the 1975 Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq. Iran withdrew its support for the Kurds as part of the border settlement, and the United States followed suit. The episode was the first example that Washington, too, would walk away from the Kurds when geopolitics suited it. Our young man would have heard tales of the fighting, and then of the abandonment in the field by the United States, from the uncles who made it home alive.
The worst of it all came in 1988 when the Iraqi military attacked Halabja, a Kurdish town in northern Iraq, with chemical weapons. Some 5000 civilians were killed. After Saddam’s military was expelled from Kuwait in Gulf War 1.0, President George H. Bush encouraged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein. Kurdish groups in northern Iraq rose in violent rebellion. However, when the United States did not intervene to support the rebels, they were brutally crushed. Under pressure, Washington established a no-fly zone in northern Iraq under Operation Provide Comfort, which protected Kurdish areas from the worst of Iraqi attack. As an unintended consequence, this allowed the establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). This was the closest Kurds ever came to self-government. Our Kurdish leader was now a man and likely fought the Iraqis himself, believing at first in U.S. support. He was unlikely to have met the retired American Green Beret I did, whose eyes welled with tears years later in a North Carolina bar describing when he was ordered to walk away and leave his Kurdish comrades.
During Iraq War 2.0 Kurdish fighters worked side-by-side with U.S. forces to topple Saddam Hussein. But in 2005 the U.S.-dictated Iraqi constitution specifically excluded Kurdish independence in favor of a “unified” Iraq. In 2017 the Kurdish people held an independence referendum, which the United States opposed for fear of destabilizing Iraq and antagonizing Turkey and Iran. The United States did not intervene on the Kurds’ behalf when the Baghdad government, now closely aligned with Iran, retook disputed territory, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Our Kurdish leader would have most likely participated in these events, met with American envoys promising independence with one hand behind their backs, and watched as America again weighed regional aims against Kurdish hopes. In the local style he would have referred to the Americans as “my friends” even as he knew the term lacked validity.
One might think that would have been the end of friendly U.S.-Kurdish relations. Instead, another chapter unfolded during the 2014 war in Syria when Kurdish militias became the United States’ most effective local partner in the fight against Islamic State. For Kurdish leaders in Syria, this partnership in blood appeared to again signal long-term American backing for a self-governing Kurdish region. However, in 2019 President Donald Trump withdrew many U.S. troops from Syria and allowed Turkey to launch military operations against Kurdish forces it feared had eyes on Turkish border lands.
So spare a thought for our Kurdish leader, now an elder in his group and possibly one of the key leaders who received guests from the CIA recently bearing small arms and maybe a phone call from Trump himself bearing big promises. According to one U.S. official, a goal would be to “take over a specific territory in the Kurdish region inside Iran in order to challenge the regime and inspire a broader uprising.”
But unlike those American officials, our man knows his history, having survived it. He is once more being asked to throw his young soldiers into war on behalf of the U.S., hoping this time Kurdish needs will somehow align closely enough with American war aims in Iran as to benefit him. Promised air cover, he will weigh carefully any Western history he may recall, such as about the Bay of Pigs, when such promises were also made. Will the Turks pressure the U.S. to abandon him again? Will his men just be used as bait to draw out Iranian ground forces? Will a deal with Washington that suggests Iranian stability leave him alone again, useless as spilled water on the sand? No way, many will say having read all this, ignoring the sad reality that time after time the Kurds believed America and went into a fight alongside her. When someone writes the next version of all this history, what will the concluding paragraph say about our Kurdish leader in 2026? The Kurds learned to survive every empire that promised them a nation. The question is whether they have finally learned to distrust one.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Rich Bauer said...
1TACO Turds
If anyone trusts the word of Amerika, then they deserve it good.
03/18/26 8:20 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2“The question is whether they have finally learned to distrust one.”
Trump First. MAGA is just learning that lesson.
03/18/26 10:57 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
3Thanks PVB. Lots to ponder here.
03/18/26 11:52 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Hey Demented, nobody is gonna fight for your stupid war.
The seven stages of Good Grief, Demented Don:
1. Don’t need help
2. We need help
3. Why aren’t folks helping?
4. Helps on the way
5. Not telling you who is helping
6. Helps not actually on the way but we don’t need it anyway
7. We may just abandon it and leave it to everyone else.
Get the strait-jacket ready, JD.
03/18/26 12:15 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
5Bauer: Trump’s style is to just blithely walk away from messes he has created and has no way to fix and then blame it on the ungrateful Iranian folk for not following up on his Great Emancipator gift. “Hey, I took out their evil leader and it’s not my fault they dropped the ball and screwed up refusing to follow with a total cleansing of a their theocracy.”
I do know one thing for sure. I’m a PTSD candidate knowing how much grief and suffering America has visited upon regular folk in foreign lands. I sense and rightfully so, that psychologically I’m already burdened by knowing about all the death and suffering my country and its ally Israel has created. PTSD can be very subtle and can drain a person of spirit and hope but 95% of Americans will be fine. Their consciences are clear.
03/18/26 5:44 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
6I should use the term second hand PTSD. One doesn’t actually have to be on site of such monstrous violence but being inundated with pictures has to be messing with your psyche. MAGA creeps:”If it bothers you so much just look away and tune out.” Hey, yeah that’s the ticket!
03/19/26 10:14 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7Demented stupidity gets 200 soldiers injured, 12 killed (suckers and losers), and then he lifts sanctions on Iran.
Demented, you is a damn genius.
03/19/26 2:31 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
8So Netanyahu reads Durant? Trump apparently reads only Michael Ledeen. Yes, every 10 years or so the US should throw some small country up against the wall just to show that the US is in charge of the world. Iran is not some small country. That was a known known. To Trump that fact was an unknown unknown.
03/20/26 12:11 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
9Bauer: In Aliens, Ash tries to kill Ripley but two crew members courageously intervene. If Trump is like Ash- a robot- who or what will have the courage to restrain him? Anyone? I’m blankin’ here.
03/20/26 1:13 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
10Given the level of delusion that infected 77,000,000 voters who believed a pathological liar to tell them the truth, the only recourse is to hit them in the ars with an economic 2×4. When Brent oil hits $140 and these dimwits can’t afford gas money to go and vote in November, just maybe the fear of living day to day will overcome the fear sold by the Faux Propaganda Nutwork. Then god speed, Donnie Dementia.
03/20/26 2:19 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11TACO RINGS THE SURRENDER BELL
The Rich Pricks who paid for Trump’s election don’t like the return on their investment. Their Stocks are getting crushed like Trump’s little balls. Trump TACO is getting out after he has burned down the house in November. Nuttyyahoo, who just burned the White Nazis by saying Jesus is nothing compared to really tough people like Mr. G. Khan, is on his own. Israel First to go.
These are his conditional surrender terms:
“While I completely obliterated the Repug Deep State WAR Party, I also did this:
“Completely degraded Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them.”
“Destroying Iran’s Defense Industrial Base.”
“Eliminating their Navy and Air Force, including Anti Aircraft Weaponry.”
“Never allowed Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability, and always being in a position where the U.S.A. can quickly and powerfully react to such a situation, should it take place.” I swear this time it is real.
“Protecting, at the highest level, our Middle Eastern Allies, including Israel ( haha) Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others.” PS: het guys, send me your crypto or Iran will get the okay,
03/20/26 5:51 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12Donnie Dementia wants a civil war to distract from Iran War defeat
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump could get “somebody killed” after the president accused Democrats of being the country’s “greatest enemy” after Iran.
On Sunday, the president posted, “Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party!”
Trump also said Saturday that “Radical Left Democrats have hurt so many people with their vicious and uncaring ways” and that “Fascist Democrats will never protect America.”
Imagine Faux News reaction when President Newsom declares MAGA the greatest enemy America has.
03/22/26 1:26 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
13“Will the Kurds fight the government in Tehran at Washington’s urging.”
Yes, but never at the urging of a demented old lunatic like Drumpf.
03/22/26 8:57 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
14TACO TUESDAY NOW ON MONDAYS
Trump Says U.S. and Iran Held ‘Very Good’ Talks on Ending Conflict
President Trump said he would postpone a deadline for striking Iran’s energy infrastructure after “productive” talks to resolve hostilities. Iranian state media said he was “backing down” after threats of retaliation.
Once a TACO…
03/23/26 8:57 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15“Will Iran Blink on the Strait of Hormuz?” File in Fiction
Will Demented Blink on the Strait of Hormuz? File in NONFiction
Damn, if Demented went through with his TOTAL OBLITERATION PLAN it would have obliterated MAGA as well as his Saudi bank account.
03/23/26 10:46 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16The AMERICAN (haha) Conservative has finally joined the dump Demented crowd, citing his mental incapacity. That would require flip flop VD Dance to stab Demented in the back. Right.
There is a much better chance to send Demented to his Epstein cell: file treason charges for giving Amerika’s enemy Iran aid and comfort in dropping oil sanctions, freeing billions to be used in its war against Amerika.
03/23/26 11:21 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17MAGA Heads Exploding in Cognitive Dissonance
When MAGA voted for Demented as a FU to the establishment Republican Party, it thought it was getting an America First and No More WARS PREZIDUNCE. Instead, it got another lying Deep State POS who sold them out to the Nuttyyahoo Israel First Lobby and the oilygarchs who are making it their mission these poor assholes never get healthcare or Social Security. These idiots deserve it, as a fool and his money..you know the rest.
So imagine the pain these poor bastards must be dealing with as they pay over $4 a gallon at the pump. Might as well be Demented grabbing them by their genitals. Predictably they will somehow twist the situation that their Lunatic Leader was lied to by the Democrats. Oh that Obama made this Iran thing something Demented had to solve. Soros has to be behind this EPIC Fiasco.
There are no easy solutions to deal with these idiots. When they don’t have a job and can’t afford to feed themselves, they will hold onto their cherished faux news that Demented was right all along. The common clay of the West…you know, morons.
03/23/26 10:40 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
18Bauer: It doesn’t look likely that America will abandon its obsessive militaristic ethos.
Some of us- by random happenstance of being an American citizen by birth- were hoping for sort some of honorary intellectual immunity of not being lumped in with what America has become under Trump. That is vanity. One can renounce one’s citizenship or plan an alternative on this continent where one’s children and grandchildren can hopefully forge an alternative to America’s apparent current flat spin destiny.
03/24/26 6:28 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19General Bonespurs gets his very own Vietnam Epic fiasco
The war gods are a fickle bunch. They cheated General Bonespurs out of his heroic chance to fight the North Vietnamese and save the free world. Now he gets a second chance to prove to the world Demented is not a coward. He alone can stop the evil Iran menace. MAGA, the 77,000,000 who voted for this vulgarian, Headhunter Salman and Nuttyyahoo demand it.
Obliterating 160 little Iranian girls is just a start. HELL, that’s fun, as Dry Drunk Pete HeadUpHisAss would say. Demented wants so bad to send 50,000 Marines to their deaths, or as General Bonespurs calls them, SUCKERS AND LOSERS. Only 15,000 more soldier deaths and Demented can build another monument in DC.
03/24/26 9:21 PM | Comment Link