Throughout the past decade and a half we have battled Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq and then Syria.
We have had one reliable ally in this regional war and that is the Peshmerga forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi-Kurdistan.
The Peshmerga are the military force that provides security to the region known as Iraqi Kurdistan.
Once we “liberated” Iraq, President Bush’s envoy to Iraq, made the brilliant decision to disband the Iraqi Army and the insurgency was born.
The Army was probably the only stable institution in post-Sadaam Hussein Iraq and once it was disbanded under the policy of de-Baathification (the cleansing of Baath party members from all participation in Iraqi government and civic affairs) the largely Sunni forces reconstituted into Al Queada in Iraq.
In the 2003 Iraq war, the Peshmerga are credited to playing a key role in the capture of Saddam Hussein.
The following year they captured a key Al Qaeda figure who revealed the identity of Osama Bin Laden’s messenger that set in motion the events that led to his death in Pakistan in 2011.
As the Islamic State swept across Iraq and Syria decimating the Iraqi armed forces, the Peshmerga together with Kurdish troops from other countries repelled them.
Iraq has always been an unworkable, unmanageable puzzle since its creation.
It was carved out by the League of Nations following World War I and placed under the authority of Britain. Established as a monarchy, it gained its independence in 1932.
In 1958 the monarchy was overthrown and the Hussein regime ruled it through the Baathist Party until 2003.
Although the regime was made up of the minority Sunni sect, it succeeded in imposing brutal repression on the Shia majority until the overthrow of Saddam in 2003.
Since then, the country has experienced one weak and chaotic attempt at coalition government after another while having to contend with Iranian backed Shia malitias.
Since launching Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the United States has experienced 4,424 deaths and almost 32,000 wounded in its ongoing futile attempt to bring order to the country.
In 2005 former Vice-President, Joe Biden, was the Chairman of the United States Senate foreign relations Committee.
In a New York Times Opinion piece, he proposed that each sect, Shia, Sunni and Kurds, be allowed to establish a separate state under a central Baghdad government. While he would later contend that he did not advocate “partitioning “Iraq, he clearly recognized that establishing a homogenous democracy was proving to be impossible.
On September28th the Kurds held a referendum on declaring their independence from Iraq against the wishes of every nation in the region.
The result was that ninety-seven percent of the population voted to be free.
Neighboring Turkey, which has always been hostile to the Kurds despite their military successes against the Islamic State, has threatened to cut off its oil pipeline to starve the province of needed revenues. The Turkish government fears that the outcome will fuel a similar referendum among its own Kurdish population.
Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shia, also fearing unrest among its Kurdish population, has demanded the referendum be annulled.
Both countries have joined with Baghdad in conducting military exercises on the borders they share with Kurdistan.
The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad also opposes Kurdish independence.
The continued resistance the Kurds maintain in the face of this retaliation has now led the Baghdad government to issue arrest warrants for the leaders of the Kurdish government.
The United States has refused to recognize the outcome of the referendum and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has urged the Kurds to stay focused on fighting the Islamic State.
When one considers that the rise of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Iraq is a direct outgrowth of our disastrous mismanagement of that country after the fall of Saddam Hussein that position borders on hypocrisy in the face of the Kurdish contribution in this fight.
To be sure, the existing Kurdish government, a pseudo- monarchy is far from a democracy along with a variety of other flaws it possesses.
Whether it could establish an enduring, self-sustaining state is an open question.
Nevertheless, when one considers the enormous contributions that the Kurds have made in thwarting Islamic terrorists and oppressive regimes like Bashar-al-Assad, it is easy to see why the Kurds might now view themselves as America’s pawn rather than ally.