Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on Kurdish Independence
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed examining the current United States policy toward Kurdish independence, and U.S. support of using Kurdish soldiers in Iraq and Syria against ISIS.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “US Loves Kurdish Fighters But Not Kurdish Independence,” was published on July 30, 2017 in The Arab Weekly.
From the text of the Op-Ed:
In the classic 1970 movie “Kelly’s Heroes,” a US Army general in France during the second world war hears on a military radio that a group of soldiers appears to be pressing ahead with an offensive against the Germans. His staff of officers knows nothing of the offensive because it is an unauthorised rogue operation to steal gold from a bank behind German lines.
When he then hears that the rogue soldiers are pressing ahead despite encountering heavy German fire, the general bellows to his lethargic staff: “That’s the type of fighting spirit that I’m talking about.” He then gets in his jeep and heads to the front.
Although the movie is fictional, it underscores a truism: US military leaders like those who like to fight.
This is why the United States has armed and advised the Kurds in Syria and Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). The Kurds have proven to be tough fighters who are eager to go up against their enemies. In Syria, they are the main group in the US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces leading the military campaign against Raqqa. In Iraq, the Kurdish peshmerga — “those who face death” — have been US allies since the early 1990s and helped to secure areas of northern Iraq that fell to ISIS in 2014.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).