Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Yerevan Saaed
“As a tactic, arming the Kurds has real operational merit. But the question is whether the United States intends to convert Kurdish wartime service into a lasting institutional and political commitment after regime change. In Iraq, Washington largely followed through: Kurds secured constitutional recognition, a federal region, and their own Peshmerga forces. In Syria, the outcome was the opposite. When the U.S. withdrew political and military support, the Kurds were left exposed to the new regime in Damascus. Arms can flow, but whether a binding alliance follows is the only question that determines if this venture ends in some form of Kurdish self-determination or another cycle of mobilization, abandonment, and reprisal.” (03/08/26)