Make a deal with the Iraqis to establish a base in northern Iraq and defend the Kurds Maybe we should just make it in Kurdish territory.
One of the only unifying traits of Iraqis is their hatred of Kurds. ISIS was originally constituted from the remnants of Saddam’s armed forces.
Their history completely upends the “Palestinian” myth. The Kurds have maintained a stateless existence in their homelands since the early 1900s when Brits divided the region without regard to ethnicity. They have maintained their culture despite being systematically disenfranchised and abused in three separate countries. They were willing agents of the Armenian genocide and factions have allied themselves with communists and terrorists; however, they actually admitted fault in the genocide, unlike Turkey, and have sheltered minority Christian and Druze from ISIS attacks.
Turkey’s entrance in the actual hostilities was an attack on Kurds in northern Iraq, and they almost took out some of our operators at the same time. “Oops, my bad,” was good enough for Obama and that set the tone for the next few years. The Kurds routed ISIS from their territory and that has everyone in the region terrified. They want their land, their oil, and sovereignty.
Every part of that is anathema to Iraqis, Turks, Syria, Iran and the House of Saud. We work alongside the Kurds, but have no formal acknowledgement of terms from an international standpoint. We are acting like the French during the American Revolution. It’s a sad commentary on our foreign policy, but it’s another intractable foreign entanglement. We need to get our troops out.
I actually think that was the plan.