Kurdish Policy Analysis

Mark Hertling, former commander of US troops in Iraq in 2007 shares his personal thoughts on why the Kurds cannot solve the Iran Problem FOR MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS, when American presidents have wanted to  put pressure  on leader in Iraq or Iran, the same idea has consistently popped up: Use the Kurds. Now, as the Trump administration seeks “ unconditional surrender ” from the Iranian regime, the question of the Kurds has come up again. Last week, CNN  reported  that the CIA is arming Kurdish rebels “with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran.” The logic behind the suggestion is easy to understand. The Kurds are fierce fighters. They are among the more pro-Western and pro-American groups in the region. They were partners and helped stabilize parts of Iraq during the U.S. invasion. They were decisive in helping defeat ISIS when the Iraqi state nearly collapsed in 2014 and in destroying ISIS in Syria. For many Americans, they represent the kind of ally we wish...

How Iran is trying to win the war? Iran is not trying to win the war, it is trying to make it very expensive That's two completely different games. And most people still don’t understand the difference. Iran is not fighting a military war. Iran is fighting an economic war. Their goal is not to hit the military base. or warships. They don't even target Israel or the United States Iran has changed its goal of war. Their target is the price of oil. Iran has made their goal very clear. $200 per barrel of oil.  That's how Iran declares victory - not by shooting down an F-35, but by doubling oil prices and causing unbearable pain, it would be devastating to the global economy, creating a situation where 50 presidents call Trump every day to stop the war. Think about that strategy for a moment. 15,000 martyr drones, which cost several thousand dollars, will hit the billion-dollar oil infrastructure in the region. Iran has been preparing for this war for decades  Stop the movement ...

How American Imperial and Colonial Mindset led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? Is there an exit strategy? When the Strait of Hormuz closes, you don’t need to be a military analyst to understand what just happened. You only need to understand what the world runs on. Oil. Gas. Shipping lanes. Insurance rates. Container schedules. Energy prices that decide whether factories hum or go dark, whether households heat or freeze, whether governments fall or survive. This is why serious analysts have long argued that Hormuz is not a “threat” Iran invented for propaganda; it is a structural red line that the U.S. and its allies have treated as a bluff because they could not imagine a regional actor actually pulling the lever that exposes a vulnerability: dependence. And this is why what we are watching now is a massive U.S. miscalculation that will be studied later the way the Iraq invasion is studied today, with the same disbelief that decision-makers could be so arrogant, so blind, and ...