“...the best the West will probably be able to do is to contain it to Iraq and Syria while promoting democracy in the new, independent Kurdistan.”
An independent Kurdistan... now THERE’S the horse to back... IF the US is smart enough to do it... But I am not optimistic!
Turkey (our NATO ally) and Iran will not allow an independent Kurdistan, nor give up territory to its nationalists, both have fought with Kurd groups for years and deem them “terrorists”
Kurdish self-determination as part of a loose “Iraq” federation - tolerated perhaps
independent nation - not