"Backed by U.S. Airstrikes, Kurds Regain Ground From ISIS" Topic

"Kurdish forces, backed by a surge of American airstrikes in recent days, recaptured a large swath of territory from Islamic State militants on Thursday, opening a path from the autonomous Kurdish region to Mount Sinjar in the west near the Syrian border.

The two-day offensive, which involved 8,000 fighters, known as pesh merga, was the largest one to date in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, according to Kurdish officials. It was also a successful demonstration of President Obama's strategy for battling the extremist group: American airpower combined with local forces doing the fighting on the ground…"
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Amicalement
Armand

It looks like a good combo. Heard on CNN the US Advisors stated it may take a long as 3 years to get the Iraqi army capable of being an effective force. Must be a record for rapid decline of a well trained & equipted force …

The Kurds are crazy for Americans and anything American. We should do our utmost to assist them…

Like an independent Kurdistan. Is there really anyone who could realistically oppose us if we devoted the proper time and effort to accomplish this? It comes down to will. Everyone's going to bring up Turkey, you know, our supposed NATO ally that is increasingly Islamicized. The Turkey that wouldn't allow us to operate from Turkish bases for our Iraqi incursion. All the amour that we left with the Iraqi government that was wasted on them should've been left with the Kurds who allowed us in and they could've distributed it where they thought best.

Agree!.

Amicalement
Armand

An American backed Kurdistan would be a great counter weight to both Turkey and Iran. Give them enough armor M1s for several brigades and we start dictating terms to everyone. Should have broken that country up into thirds as a federation.

The problem with an independent Kurdistan is that the Kurds would likely start shooting into Turkey, to get all the Kurdish lands into the nation of Kurdistan. Which would get … messy, in an Article 5 way.

But yes, we probably should have split Iraq into a federation of Kurdistan, Sunnistan, and Shiastan, sorta like a US or UK in miniature.

The problem with an independent Kurdistan is that the Kurds would likely start shooting into Turkey, to get all the Kurdish lands into the nation of Kurdistan.

Are there no diplomats or diplomatic corps? Surely, terms could be negotiated to the benefit of all with no one getting all they expect, but satisfied none-the-less. Isn't that how it goes?

@Cyrus: It's my understanding that the Turkish Ambassador delivered a message along the lines of, "Turkey will NEVER accept a split of Iraq along sectarian lines. There will NEVER be an independent Kurdistan. We will go to war to make sure it does not happen."

I respectfully think that many observations here are way off base. Your analysis would be valid 10 years ago, but things have changed a lot since then.

Turkey is Kurdistan's greatest regional ally. Turkey broke agreements with Iraq in order to trade with the KRG.

Now, it's the PKK that is the historical enemy of Turkey; that was largely a beneficial understanding of the Turkish military (which used to run Turkey, but doesn't anymore since Erdogan broke their back) to have an enemy to justify the military's outsize role. Have you noticed how PKK/Turkish military clashes have gone *way* down since the Syrian civil war spun out of control? The PKK is the smallest and least important of the Kurdish political organisations.

Erdogan doesn't need an external threat like the PKK to justify his existence; he is trying a much more difficult, subtle and potentially dangerous balancing act of extremist Islamic (Sunni) goals with the populist goals of keeping his rural, poor base happy and suppressing the middle class, tolerant, progressive city dwellers and the "Ataturkists" of the former officer corps.

The juggling act now between Turkey and the KRG is who will get more from the wreckage of Syria. The KRG is cleaning up right now, because they are using U.S. airpower to recreate their dreams of a Kurdish empire that stretches between three seas: the Caspian, the Gulf, and the Med. Laugh if you want, but I've visited Masoud Barzani in his office (I spent a year in northern Iraq for the State Dept), and he has a map on the wall of a Kurdistan with exactly those boundaries. The Turks are going to be happier to see Kurdistan get bigger as long as their territory is carved out of Iraq and Syria, because a stronger KRG makes Tehran, Baghdad, and Bashar al-Assad easier for Erdogan to handle.

"The Kurds are crazy for Americans and anything American."

The Kurds have never done anything for the U.S. that wasn't completely in their own interest. But yes, they're thrilled to have a superpower at their beck and call.

Well I have given up on the Turks as allies a long time ago. As allies I would rather have an effective one like the Kurds and wouldn't bother me a bit if they picked up territory in Syria and Iran and Iraq. We could use a power there totally dependent on us.

My son was in both Kurdistan and Kandahar and he will tell you which place better deserves our support. While he was just a lowly pawn, he remembers who shot at him and who didn't.