[quote=“MikeN”]So the current situation is roughly
-The U.S. is bombing ISIS to protect the Yazidis and support the Kurds.
-The Kurds, who were happy to take advantage of the Baghdad government’s humiliating defeat to expand their territory, are now being pressed by ISIS and asking for American help.
-The Shia-supremacist government of Maliki Baghdad, instead of compromising, has insisted on maintaining Shi’ite dominance.
-The Iraqi government also opposes American aid to the Kurds, on the grounds they’ll simply use it to make themselves even more independent.
-The Sunni tribes whose defection was vital to the success of the Surge won’t oppose ISIS if it simply means placing themselves once more under the control of the Shi’ites.
-Iran has moved in to pick up the pieces and is basically running the Iraqi government’s fight against ISIS.
-The evil butcher Assad in Damascus is now the mainstay preventing ISIS from taking over most of Syria.
-The Turks, who used to be the fiercest of opponents of the idea of Kurdistan, have come to an accommodation with the Iraqi Kurds in exchange for them dropping support of the Kurds in Turkey. Turkey has helped the Iraqi Kurds ship oil to Israel, which the (mildly) Sunni Islamist government of Turkey claims to despise. This shipment was opposed by the governments of Iraq- and the U.S.
-Saudi Arabia opposes the government in Iraq and Iran, because of their Shi’ite fundamentalist theocracy; and ISIS, because that kind of Sunni fundamentalist theocracy threatens their own kind of Sunni fundamentalist theocracy
-So we have Maliki’s government in Baghdad (supported by Iran and the U.S.) which opposes ISIS, the Kurds, and Saudi Arabia, but supports Iran and the Assad regime;
-The Iranians, opposed by the West, Saudi Arabia and ISIS, which supports the Iraqi government but opposes ISIS- and the Kurds, because an independent Kurdistan appeals to the Kurds of northern Iran and lessens the power of the Shia government in Baghdad;
-The Kurds, who oppose ISIS and the Maliki government;
-Ashir Bassad in Syria, who opposes ISIS but is opposed by the U.S., Europe and Saudi Arabia but is supported by Iraq and Iran;
Saudi Arabia, which opposes Iraq, Iran, Syria - but also opposes ISIS;
The USA, which supports the Maliki government but opposes the Iranians who are propping up that government; opposes ISIS but also the governments of Syria and Iran who are fighting ISIS; and sort of supports the Kurds, but only up to a point and on some things i.e. fight ISIS yay, fight ISIS to increase indepence from Baghdad , boo.
Then there’s Israel, Gaza, Hamas, the West Bank, the PA, democracy-crushing generals in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and the fighting in Libya.
Personally, I blame it all on Obama.[/quote]
Brilliant post, MikeN. Your grasp of international politics is truly amazing. I don’t envy the president or the secretary of state in trying to sort out that mess. I don’t just mean Obama and Kerry, but all people who have been and will be in their positions. Who to trust? Who to support, and when, and how? Not an easy nut to crack.