Small Wars Journal

Obama Needs Iraqi Kurds to Fight Islamic State. But They Have Their Own Troubles.

Wed, 09/17/2014 - 11:30pm

Obama Needs Iraqi Kurds to Fight Islamic State. But They Have Their Own Troubles. By Greg Jaffe, Washington Post

… Washington has long looked to Kurdistan, a tolerant pro-American region of Iraq with a thriving oil economy, as representative of its grandest hopes for the country. Even as Baghdad burned in 2006 and 2007, the semiautonomous Kurdish region remained a sanctuary. These days, the Obama administration is counting on the Kurds to be the leading edge of a ground offensive to take back cities throughout northern Iraq from ruthless, well-financed and heavily armed Sunni insurgents.

The past few months, though, have exposed some deep cracks in the Kurdish success story and raised questions about the viability of an Obama administration strategy that leans heavily on the Kurds…

Read on.