Emotions?? hello???
The Kurds have been our friends and allies. This guy gassed them. I don’t think the Kurds are going to sweep that under the rug, nor should they.
“dislike his previous actions”? He’s guilty of genocide.
We don’t make friends with genocidal monsters. They are put on trial and executed.
If the current Iraqi government decides to pardon this guy to help stabilize the entire country, the Kurds will go along. They won’t necessarily like it, but the potential for a death blow to Al-Qaieda is too great to pass up.
Having genocidal monsters as friends is not unprecedented, ever hear of Joe Stalin? After WWII, we worked with plenty of former SS men. A group of them even helped start the West German Intelligence Service, with our blessing. Saddam was even on friendly terms with us at one time. Sometimes it is necessary to compromise on principles to achieve a higher goal. After all, life itself is not neat, but extremely messy.
We got along just fine with Uncle Joe Stalin during WW II. Twenty million dead Ukrainians didn't slow us down a bit. When fighting an implacable and deadly foe you do what you have to do to win. You want a pretty picture, go to a museum.