Quote Originally Posted by Strickland View Post
Don't the Kurds provide sanctuary and support to the MEK, PKK/Kongra Gel, and Ansar al Sunnah? I believe all three of these groups are on the US FTO list. If we are truly serious about the GWOT, how about we ask the Kurds to hand these folks over? Even better, in an effort to gain increased influence with the Turks and Iranians, how about we turn them over to those nations for prosecution?

BTW - didnt Barazani assist Saddam against Talabani during the 90s?
MEK was a Saddam-supported entity; the KDP/PUK never "provided sanctuary and support" to that organization. What remains of them are in areas under US control. On our own side, there has been a bit of a moral debate over the potential for exploiting them against Iran for our own benefit. I believe there is a discussion somewhere on SWC on this issue....

PKK/Kongra Gel et al primarily operate out of the heavily mountainous tri-border (Turkey-Iraq-Iran) area. This is an ideal guerrilla sanctuary and has been used as such by Kurds for centuries. There is much else to occupy the nascent Kurdish governing authorities besides hunting down fellow Kurds at the behest of the Turks - for whom no love is lost by Kurds anywhere. Although elements within the Iraqi Kurdish population may support the Turkish Kurds, they KRG does not - but they also do not make any real attempt to detect, deter or prevent militant Turkish Kurds from using Iraqi territory.

The Kurds actively assisted US forces in rolling up Ansar al-Sunnah elements at the beginning of OIF. There wasn't much of them to begin with, and it is highly unlikely that the Iraqi Kurds will stand for an operational re-emergence of that group in Kurdish areas.

Finally, Barzani didn't "assist" Saddam against Talabani - he requested Saddam's assistance in the middle of the civil war between the two Kurdish parties shortly after the PUK began receiving operational assistance from Iran. That incident was a disaster for the Kurds, resulting in the pullout of all USAID OFDA/DART teams from northern Iraq along with the multi-national MCC - with a comcomitant loss of NGO assistance to the rebuilding of Iraqi Kurdistan. Significant lessons learned on all sides.