[Pearls Before Swine]

Back during the Iraq war, the Kurds did so much and never got their freedom. They seem to always be besieged on all sides. Does ANYONE defend them and, if not, why not? I must not understand something fundamental about their situation. Could someone help me?

Maybe this will be of some use.

Shortly after WW I, Winston Churchill drew up the new borders of the Middle East. He once joked that he'd done it in an afternoon. That's how Iraq got cobbled together out of three different tribal identities--the Sunnis, the Shias, and the Arabs. The carving up of the Middle East was done at the expense of the Ottoman Empire (the Turks) who had the bad judgement to join the losing side.

In my view, the Kurds just got left out. And ever since, no one has wanted to give up "their" territory to form a Kurdish homeland.

[hoosiermama]

Good analysis

[mairdie]

Thank you all for that help. It does help me understand. I feel very badly for them but, short of our turning them into our version of Singapore so that we can help them to a vibrant economy, I can’t think what we could do to help. They seem like perpetual victims.