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Why Doesn’t the U.S. Support Kurdish Independence?
The Kurds are one of Washington’s closest and most reliable allies in the Middle East
After World War I, the Kurds came tantalizingly close to getting an independent state.
Nearly a century later, they are no closer to an independent homeland.
There are many reasons for this: regional instability; suppression of the Kurds, most dramatically in Turkey and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq; vehement opposition to a Kurdish state; infighting among Kurds; and, despite some prominent Western supporters, no viable advocate for Kurdish statehood.
These reasons were on display this week as…