This post was republished with permission from Zero Hedge
This should be obvious to any observer of Middle East history and US foreign policy over the last half-century, but a new Axios report cited Kurdish officials who say they don’t ‘trust’ the United States, especially in wake of recent reports suggesting the Kurds will be used as proxy ground forces against Iran.
Iraq’s Kurds have already made clear they oppose joining the US-Israeli attacks on Iran andwarn they could face severe Iranian retaliation without ground or air defense support,Axiosreported Saturday.
President Trump has since stated that he does not want the Kurds to go into Iran.
Trump says we DO NOT seek supporting the Kurds in performing any kind of ground invasion in to Iran: "We're not looking to the Kurds going in.""We're very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don't want to make the war any more complex than it already is.""They're…pic.twitter.com/hqbmeEwojx
An earlierCNN report claimed the CIA began working to arm Kurdish forceshostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran after the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury.
Initially, President Trump openly voiced support for Kurdish involvement in the conflict but then soon reversed that position on Saturday.
“The Kurds must not be the tip of the spear in this conflict,”Axiosreported, citing a senior official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is the semi-autonomous region in northeastern Iraq.
The Iraqi Kurds are“staying neutral” because “there is no clarity”on whether Washington seeks full regime change in Iran or only a “change in personnel” – the KRG official said. Trump has stated the United States will be involved in deciding who leads Iran in the future but has not explained how that would really work in the end. The war objectives have seemed to shift rapidly, especially when it comes to daily public facing White House interactions with reporters.
Some military analysts and Middle East pundits onlinerecently attempted to count the number of times the Kurds were effectively “thrown under the bus”in their total history of working with Washington, and concluded that it’s beenat least nine times.
Source: modernity
