The United States abandoned the Kurds in 1975 and again in 1991. Sixteen years separated these first two betrayals. Another 16 years have elapsed, and America may be on the verge of another betrayal, however unintended and inadvertent, of the residents of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi Kurds (and members of other ethnic groups in the Kurdistan region) have been unflinching allies of the U.S. forces in Iraq. Some of their support has entailed acting under a Kurdish banner, like when Kurdish fighters, the peshmerga, provided logistical support and hospitality to paratroopers landing in the north as the war began.
But much more of their support has been under an Iraqi rubric. On my several trips to Iraq since 2003, I have observed that at least in the northern part of the country, Iraqi troop composition is very heavily Kurdish. I also saw strong evidence of a warm, cooperative relationship between Kurdish Iraqi and U.S. soldiers. Statistics on the makeup of the Iraqi Army released in late 2005 also suggest that ethnic Kurds are probably the heaviest participants, proportionally, in the Iraqi military.
'Unintended and inadvertent'? Now that's a laugh. The owner of the IHT supports escalation.
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