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[mainiac]

I'd agree completely with this sentiment. It's really amazing how friendly US-Kurdish relations are, considering how many times we've fucked them over.

Given kurdish history I think they'd probably be suspicious if we hadn't killed a few dozen thousand of them through malign neglect at some point.

[MarcAFK]

So given that after a year the thread is about a big as the last 2 year old one, will there be a new US politics thread for 2k16 ?

[RedKing]

I was thinking more of the post-1991 period, when they happily went into a three-way civil war and played "Saddam, Saddam, Who's Allied with Saddam?" for several years. The PKK even tried their hand at becoming an Islamist group for a while when they thought it might get them more support than their old Communist shtick did.

To me, it's just indicative of the cynical, pragmatic mindset in that region -- always make sure you're on the winning side, even if it means changing sides five minutes before the other guys roll into the capital.

EDIT: And as someone pointed out, just carving an ethnic homeland for people (even if they deserve one) out of existing states hasn't worked out so well in the past.

[mainiac]

Things tend not to work until they work.  We live in a world where the French and Germans stopped killing each other, the Irish and Scots stopped killing each other and the Scots and Scots stopped killing each other.  It's amazing.

[TheBiggerFish]

the Scots and Scots stopped killing each other.  It's amazing.

Yup.  *is joke*

[Sheb]

Thing is, would an independent Kurdistan really stabilize the region more? The Kurdish areas are already stable-ish, and carving shit out would create no end of resentment.

[smjjames]

If Iraq and (less likely) Syria collapsed and balkanized, then I guess it would be more palatable in the region for a Kurdistan to arise out of that rather than forcing Syria, Iraq, and Turkey to release their Kurdish regions.

Though Sheb has a point, it wouldn't neccesarily make things more stable.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I don't think there's gonna be "carving" at this point. Iraqi Kurdistan is all but independent and Syrian Kurdistan is definitely independent by all metrics. That's enough for a state, essentially.

The big thing is going to be the interaction with Turkish and Iranian Kurdistan. The effectively independent Kurds have shown no hesitation whatsoever in directly supporting the rebellion/terrorism there, which will make global interactions...difficult.

[FearfulJesuit]

The Donald: Alarmist environmental regulations are making my toupée less fabulous

[wierd]

Of course he's upset; the new propellants melt plastic!

[EnigmaticHat]

Snopes just ruined my day.  Apparently Ted Cruz isn't hip with the kids.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It's true to me, damn it.

[mainiac]

Iraqi Kurdistan is all but independent

They dont control the royalties for oil drilling on their territory.  That's a pretty big caveat in the middle east.

[Bouchart]

Iraqi Kurdistan is all but independent

They dont control the royalties for oil drilling on their territory.  That's a pretty big caveat in the middle east.

Iraq doesn't control much of anything at this point.  For practical purposes, Iraq and Syria no longer exist.

[mainiac]

They are countries in civil wars, yes.