Iraqi forces have attacked Kurdish troops <\/a>in Kirkuk, the center of an oil-rich part of Iraq that the Kurds claim as their own, even though it is outside the autonomous Iraqi state of Kurdistan.<\/p>\nThe Kurds have been the most reliable U.S. ally from the beginning of the Iraq war.\u00a0 And though they are Sunni Muslims\u2013and thus hated by the Shi\u2019ites in Iran, Iraq, and Syria\u2013they have been the most resistant to radical Islam.\u00a0 The Kurdish militia known as the Peshmurga are also perhaps the best fighters in the region.<\/p>\n
In September, the Kurds\u00a0voted in a referendum to declare independence from Iraq.\u00a0 This is no doubt the main impetus for the Iraqi Security Force attacking Kirkuk.\u00a0 If the Kurds leave Iraq, they would take a great deal of oil-producing territory with them.\u00a0 There are also Kurdish areas in Syria and in Turkey, whose residents would love go be part of an independent Kurdish nation.<\/p>\n
Kurdish independence is also seen as a major threat in Turkey, which has a sizable Kurdish population.\u00a0 Turkey has already attacked Kurdish forces in nearby Syria.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the United States is in a position of having armed both sides in the Kurdish and anti-Kurdish conflicts.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard for an American not to have sympathy with the Kurds, but the whole business demonstrates the\u00a0downside of American involvement.\u00a0 The region is so unstable that when one conflict\u00a0is resolved,\u00a0 another conflict is right behind it.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the defeat of territorial ISIS is a major accomplishment, so we should be thankful to the Iraqis, Syrians, Kurds, and their American advisors who won that victory.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo of Kurdish Peshmerga by Erfan.Kurdi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In news you might have missed, the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria has fallen to U.S.-supported militias.\u00a0 Back in July, allied forces in Iraq liberated the prize possession of ISIS:\u00a0 Mosul, the third-largest city in that country with a population of 1.7 million.\u00a0 Raqqa has a population of about 220,500.\u00a0\u00a0ISIS has lost nearly 90% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":29766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24,46,49],"tags":[1115,3358,5404,2570],"class_list":["post-29763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-islam","category-terrorism","category-war-2","tag-iraq","tag-islamic-stateisisisil","tag-kurds","tag-syria"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n