Who thinks this S up?
The Kurds are in the mountainous NE. They are in a very good defensive position and have oil fields and oil production in their areas. The only thing they need is an agreement with Iraqi Sunnis and/or Turkey for access to pipelines to export their crude.
There is just no way the Kurds are going to attack ISIS if ISIS stays out of their territory. That would jeopardize their ability to export oil used to support their de facto independent state.
They owe nothing to Baghdad, never have.
The only thing they’ll do is sit back and watch ISIS/Turkey Sunnis slug it out with Baghdad/Iran Shias hoping each weakens the other to the point their Sunni neighbors ask for protection and stability. This will increase their area of influence and help to secure favorable pipeline agreements.
I have no idea what our policy makers are thinking. They cannot see outside the bubble of their mutual delusions.
Policy makers? If the US had those, they wouldn’t have flushed years of sacrifice and treasure in Iraq down the toilet in only a few weeks.