A good analysis. It seems most Middle-East policy mostly comes down to placing bets, and regardless of the Iraqi Kurds’ strong American support, this bet would hold longer odds with very messy consequences. The Iraqi Kurds were severely punished by Saddam after rising up during the first Gulf War, and some loyalty and some guilt for their plight likely motivated Bush during the second Iraq invasion. Southeastern Turkey, Northeastern Syria and Western Iran also have higher Kurdish populations and until more recently, kept a tight lid on them. Only Turkey is strong enough to do so tightly at the moment.
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During Christopher Hitchens’ 2009 appearance on Australia’s Q & A, he wore a Kurdish flag pin in solidarity and fielded a question from a Kurd (starts at minute 1:30…mentioned as the rest of the debate is worth your time):
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In his new book Where The West Ends, Michael Totten describes visiting Northern Iraq briefly as a tourist with a friend, and the general feeling of pro-Americanism in Kurdish Northern Iraq that generally one can only feel in Poland, parts of the former Yugoslavia etc.
Related On This Site: So, it wasn’t an Arab Spring, but there has been an erosion of the old rituals and control of the public square….more individualization that has affected the man on the Street, according to an Olivier Roy: Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest: ‘What Did The Arab Spring Really Change?’…Adam Garfinkle At The American Interest on Egypt: ‘Still More of the Same—and Something New’…
