Besides improving their lives, I sure hope to heck that the Kurds are quietly investing in as many advanced weapons that they can get their hands on. Especially field artillery and air defense weaponry.
They are surrounded on all sides by wolves, and the future is as uncertain as it can get. They may face destruction, or unparalleled opportunity.
Without warning, all of Iranian Kurdistan may be dropped into their laps, making them Greater Kurdistan, and the same applies to the Kurdish lands in Syria. Their Peshmurga must be ready and able to occupy and defend these lands, and also to defend against the powerful armies around them.
Ironically, by being in a restive area, the Arab Iraqi army is getting far more military expertise, both in training and experience. Living in peace, the Kurds are denied this priceless education.
Fair warning to the Kurds: do not trust to America for your defense, for all too soon, forces in America that do not love you may gain the upper hand, and abandon you to your fate.
My guess, you were never a member of the pep squad.
The Kurds are a large part of the Iraqi Army and probably the largest part of the Special Forces.
"Fair warning to the Kurds: do not trust to America for your defense, for all too soon, forces in America that do not love you may gain the upper hand, and abandon you to your fate."
Hell, any temporary American ally that hasn't learned that lesson deserves what they get. We've been abrogating our treaty obligations since the U.S. left the French on the hook back in 1783. We've taken the notion of 'no foreign entanglements' and done the worst we possibly could with it--who would trust an alliance with the American government, a government that, subject to the fickle American public's whims, might leave you hung out to dry?