I'm guessing that will mean that Obama opposes them.
The Kurds have been the closest to allies that the US has had from the beginning in Iraq.
I’m guessing that will mean that Obama opposes them.
wondering when the kurds would begin to act. good for them.
If I were a betting man, I certainly wouldn’t bet against you.
The Kurds have been a thorn in the side of Iraq, Turkey and Iran and that’s a good thing.
Good and quick thinking. Maybe the Kurds could skool Zer0 in the benefits of positive actions in the interest of the nation.
One of the many political dances GWB had to perform was to promise Turkey and Saudi Arabia that he would not establish or allow to be established a Kurdish state. Such a state would destabilize Turkey, which has a substantial and oppressed Kurdish minority. I’m not sure what Saudi Arabia’s objection was. It seems, however, that Kurdish state is forming on its own. It may become the main post-Obama US ally as I believe they are anti-Iranian, anti-Turkish and pretty much anathema to Sunni’s and Shia. (If anybody could elaborate on the politics of this I’d be grateful.)
I also suspect that Israel will aid such a Kurdish state, which would give them a huge technological leg up on the surrounding Arabs and Persians.
Each day seems to be bringing us closer to Iraq being divided into 3 states as per your long time comments from year’s ago.
Turkey won’t like that
Obama is the anti-christ.
This is their moment. They won’t get a better chance.
They need to define their territory and take control of it right now. I believe that is what they will do, and are doing. Circumstances are allowing them to do it, and circumstances are forcing them to do it.
Go Kurds!
This does look like the end of Iraq as a state. Instead there will be a Kurdistan, a Sunni Arab state, and probably two Shia states for a while, one with oil and the other without. IMO it will take the Shia so long to sort out their sharing issues that the Sunni Arabs will avoid ethnic cleansing and consolidate their state.
Edrogan of Turkey might block Kurdish oil exports for a while, but there will be so much money at stake that he'll be replaced by a Turkish leader who will take Kurdish oil money.
Good.
Never before in almost a century has Joe Biden been this close to being right about something.
The Second Persian War may be on the brink.
The Kurds are HARDENED FIGHTERS defending their land - this ISIS mob is child’s play for them. In fact ISIS will not even get near them - they know it’s hopeless.
I will try to start it. That whole area is absolutely critical it seems to me.
From the posted article: He said it was unlikely the Kurds would seek formal independence from Iraq, however, because such a move would be strongly opposed by neighboring Turkey and Iran -- both of which have sizable Kurdish minorities -- as well as Washington.
Yet it has been well known that..
". . . Ankara has entered into energy deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), something which has infuriated the central Iraqi government in Baghdad but which has helped the Kurds further build a foundation for their independence [yes true that] Ankara has been so alarmed by the growing Kurdish autonomy [in Syria and tolerated by Syria, I believe] that it reportedly has provided support for [ISIS] in their fight against the Kurdish militia that controls the region [of Syria],which is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)." [my emphasis]
more..
". . . the takeover by ISIS in recent days of Mosul and other cities . . . Ankara will likely not only have to deepen its relationship with the KRG . . . but also alter its approach to the Kurds in Syria [I ask: but demand that the Kurds in Syria reject the PKK?]"
more..
"Explains Lehigh University professor and Turkey expert Henri Barkey in an analysis piece on Al-Monitor website: The crisis may force the Turks to rethink some of their policies in Syria. To date, Ankaras friendship with the Kurds stopped in Iraq; Erdogan and his government have taken an uncompromising position against Syrian Kurds led by the Democratic Union Party of Kurdistan (PYD), an offshoot of the Turkish Kurdish insurgent group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PYD has emerged as the strongest Kurdish group in Syria and has put together an impressive fighting force to defend its territory from both ISIS and the regime. The idea of another autonomous Kurdish region on its borders after the KRG has been anathema to Ankara. Paradoxically, the PYDs armed elements are some of the only ones that have scored blows against the jihadists. In the face of the ISIS sweep, the PYD and the KRG, which have also had antagonistic relations, appear to be cooperating on defensive measures against ISIS. Turkey may have to reconsider its boycott of the Syrian Kurds to enlarge the anti-ISIS coalition." [my emphasis]
I don't think that the KRG wants anything to do with Turkey's enemy the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) terrorists -- our State Dept calls the PKK a terrorist group.
Turkey was a key ally all during the Cold War. They have their own Obama in the person of (Islamist?) Erdogan and the AKP trying to convert Turkey's secular constitutional government into something tens of millions of Turks oppose. They are the true Turks. Just as we are the true Americans.
I guess Biden was right for once in his life.