is this a real thing that is actually happening?

[kentonio]

I think we probably would; more importantly the Kurds support us even if the Obama administration is too stupid to return the favor.

And they deserve a state at this point given how many times people have tried to kill them.

Exhibit A: US repeatedly talk about the importance of keeping the Iraqi state together. They do this because they can influence Iraq in it's current makeup by playing the factions against each other, preventing any from gaining overall control.
Exhibit B: Any attempt to establish Kurdistan enrages Turkey. Enraging Turkey at a time when Russia is flexing its muscles would be a REALLY bad idea.
Exhibit C: If Kurdistan is created, the argument against allowing the Sunni to create their own seperate state becomes much harder to make. A Sunni state would leave Shia Iraq squarely in the hands of Iran, something the US will not tolerate.

That'd be my take on it anyway.

[Dr Strangelove]

I think we probably would; more importantly the Kurds support us even if the Obama administration is too stupid to return the favor.

And they deserve a state at this point given how many times people have tried to kill them.

Turkey is a member of NATO and has been a stalwart supporter of the US way back since the 50's. They even let us put nuclear missles in their country at one time. I doubt the US will risk angering them to gain a tiny ally of questionable strategic value.

[Ben Kenobi]

the Obama administration is too stupid to return the favor.

The only intervention Obama would be interested in is stomping the Kurds. Also, I'm sure Obama manages to alienate the Turks just as he has everyone else.

[Bereta_Eder]

Unfortunately the geopolitical timing was never correct for the kurds to gain their independence. Noone of the players in the region wants it and non of their "patrons" wanted it either.
Didn't help that the main "liberation movement" they have, the PKK, is a marxist organization.
Still, I think they have a status of defacto autonomy in northern iraq.

[kentonio]

Also, I'm sure Obama manages to alienate the Turks just as he has everyone else.

[dannubis]

So Basically, Obama gained back the allies Shrub antagonized

[Sava]

So Basically, Obama gained back the allies Shrub antagonized

Pretty much.

I like it when the President is a democrat. The rest of the world likes us better. Right wing crazies go nuts (which is good, because then the government can identify and go after those nutcases).

Congress is going to be inept no matter what. At least the American President can not suck at times.

[PLATO]

What the heck is up with Kenya?

[DinoDoc]

What the heck is up with Kenya?

THANKS OBAMA!

[The Mad Monk]

They like our marathons.

[Sava]

What the heck is up with Kenya?

he's a terrible rapper, person and his wife's a no talent assclown

[C0ckney]

maliki has rejected calls for a unity government, saying that such alls are 'coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience."

up to a point i can see where he's coming from. his group won elections this year, so it reasonable to claim that they should govern. however, of course the situation on the ground means that without some dramatic reversal of fortunes, his government will collapse, or be removed.

[DinoDoc]

THANKS OBAMA!

Washington and London Ignored Warnings about the ISIS Offensive in Iraq

...
The Kurds became especially alarmed at signs that ISIS had already formed a shadow government in Mosul, weeks before initiating the carefully preplanned takeover of the city 10 days ago. According to the same Kurdish military sources it was accomplished with ease and without serious fighting after local Iraqi commanders agreed to withdraw.

The prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, says he warned Baghdad and the United States months ago about the threat ISIS posed to Iraq and the group’s plan to launch an insurgency across Iraq. The Kurds even offered to participate in a joint military operation with Baghdad against the jihadists.

Washington didn’t respond—a claim that will fuel Republican charges that the Obama administration has been dangerously disengaged from the Middle East. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki dismissed the warnings, saying everything was under control.

The Kurds’ intelligence head, Lahur Talabani, says he handed Washington and London detailed reports about the unfolding threat. The warnings “fell on deaf ears,” he says.
...

[Sava]

Still a Bergdahl truther, DD?

[Felch]

maliki has rejected calls for a unity government, saying that such alls are 'coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience."

up to a point i can see where he's coming from. his group won elections this year, so it reasonable to claim that they should govern. however, of course the situation on the ground means that without some dramatic reversal of fortunes, his government will collapse, or be removed.

The problem is the retarded modern obsession with democracy. Democracy is not the goal, democracy is a tool. The goals are human rights and individual liberty. If you can secure individual liberty and human rights in a dictatorship, then that dictatorship would be fine. It turns out that dictatorships are usually pretty lousy about human rights and individual liberties, and democracies are generally better. But a democratically elected government that denies its citizens basic human rights and subjects minorities to degrading treatment is not any more valid or legitimate than a dictatorship doing the same.