CIA has certainly never regretted arming insurgent groups, before...
this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
211 points (98.6% liked)
World News
56183 readers
1974 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF OCTOBER 19 2025
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
And the Kurds have never regretted allying themselves with the U.S. before https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgrzd76p4lo
Surely America won't hang them out to dry a fifth(?) time? ;p
Personal opinion: this news is likely true. I will not tell anyone if this is good or bad news, as it could be both.
Most likely, the CIA has been repeating to Trump and Pentagon like a broken grammophone: "you cannot win by aerial bombardment alone". It seems that now the CIA got authorization to make promises to Kurds, and have delivered weapons. Kurds however, most likely:
- remember being double-crossed in January (Turkey alerted Iran of their expedition)
- remember being double-crossed in December (US allowed HTS, now called "Syrian government" to surprise them)
- remember being double-crossed many times before
They are likely reluctant. According to the sources, they have asked for air support. The source cannot tell if support has been granted. US and Israeli strikes have certainly been above-average intense in Western Iran. An effective ground front might be the amount of pressure it would take to overwhelm Iran. Or maybe not.
Judging by the most recent speech by Reza Pahlavi, where he addresses all ethnic minorities and regional tribes and promises extensive safeguards to their identity and culture if a new Iran should form, I would estimate that a rift exists between Pahlavi's faction (they want an intact but democratic Iran) and the Kurdish factions (50 million Kurds are waiting for an opportunity to set up Kurdistan, 10 million of them live in Iran - this could be a condensation nucleus that starts the formation of a country). Reza Pahlavi obviously cannot promise them that, so he's willing to promise everything else.
As a note: Kurds will not declare statehood quickly at all - they know they must keep a low profile. They know Turkey will attack them if they declare statehood, Iraq will likely attack them, Syria has recently attacked them for mere ambitions of autonomy. They won't declare anything, but may try to carve out a highly autonomous province and see what happens in practise.
However, they will fear being betrayed again for the umpteenth time, which may reduce their eagerness to stick their heads into fire.
And it won't help the US break open the Hormuz strait, because there are no Kurds living there. They live in the western mountains. If Trump wants Hormuz, US soldiers will have to set their own feet on ground.
Excellent summary. The US has used and abused the Kurds over and over again. While they'd be crazy to not take their opportunity to establish some territorial autonomy, they'd have to be utter fools to trust the US not to stab them in the back again.
How our government has treated and backstabbed the Kurds in the last decade or so is an absolute travesty.
in the last decade or so
"or so" is lifting a lot there, like a couple more decades.
Not that I'm disagreeing with you; rather, a "yes, but also". heh. :/
Fortunately they remember. Having now observed the process for a few days:
- apparently, several politicians of Iraqi Kurdistan are not enthusiastic at all about the US war
- the president of Iraq, who is Kurdish, is not enthusiastic
- the first lady is publicly un-enthusiastic, writing that they are not guns for hire
- Iran is bombing Iraqi Kurdistan regardless, so they're learning how to deal with frequent drone attacks
“you cannot win by aerial bombardment alone”
Win what?
Netanyahu's approval? Doesn't seem like there's any plan besides that. No goals, no exit strategy, no exercises in democracy, just
1 kill all the leaders 2 ????? 3 Profit.
I imagine they think winning means installing a puppet government. That government being successful? Well that's the next guy's problem...
load more comments
(1 replies)
There are two things that get brought up in this topic
The Kurds being betrayed: well there's of course the situation where during the Syrian civil war they were coming under attack from islamist forces, not in the least ISIS, known for killing all the men and boys and raping and enslaving all the women and girls.
So do you think they have a lot of remorse that they accepted weapons, intel and air support during that time?
Of course they hoped to gain backing for their own state and the US leaving them to fend for themselves could feel like betrayal, but you'd have to weigh in the alternative to the initial 'deal' they got.
Wrt Iran: it's funny that a lot of Lemmings seem to agree that the regime of Iran is horrendous. However, when the question is raised on how the Irani people can topple their dictatorship when they don't possess any weapons, they just shrug (or start about Israel lol). And then when the first realistic opportunity pops up where the Iranian people could get weapons and could fight the regime themselves, ... Well you can see the responses in your topic lol
Wrt Iran: it's funny that a lot of Lemmings seem to agree that the regime of Iran is horrendous. However, when the question is raised on how the Irani people can topple their dictatorship when they don't possess any weapons, they just shrug (or start about Israel lol). And then when the first realistic opportunity pops up where the Iranian people could get weapons and could fight the regime themselves, ... Well you can see the responses in your topic lol
They are now arming the Kurds, a minority of around 10 million people in a country of 90 million. That's not going to help the resistance against the regime, if anything it'll rip up Iran into multiple autonomous territories.
Also, do you think the people that went to the streets will keep doing that after the USA and Israel started bombing the cities, hospitals, and schools? Most likely the air strikes provoked the opposite, nothing better than an unprovoked foreign aggression to unify people.
load more comments
(5 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Didnt trump betray the kurds like not that long ago?
It's on the GOP President's Must-Do list going back to Bush Sr:
- Cause a financial crisis
- Start a war in the Middle East
- Inflame racial tensions
- Betray the Kurds
"BuT tEh DeMoCrAtS lEfT uS sUcH a MeSs To cLeAn Up"
(Always referring to whatever fresh hell they were up to the last time they were in the seat)
Yes. And they will remember that. This is every single time we have interfered with Iran's government all happening again all at once. Expect similar results.
Just so we can then abandon and turn our backs on them again.
Name one time that's backfired.
load more comments
(1 replies)
sun rises in the east US betrays the Kurds
I don't trust a single word out of the lying imperialists' mouth, and from what I'm hearing, Kurdish leaders about had it as well
Hey if he is willing to give em weapons, supplies and gear then they should take it all and then sit on their hands.
That would be the funniest shit
after the success of contras in nicaragua/colombia, mujahideen in afghanistan, and many other places that don't come to mind right away, we bring you... kurds in iran! i mean trump will definetely not be around to see the long term effects, and maybe hegseth is also dead by the time it peters out, so all fine, right?
load more comments
(2 replies)
Isn’t this exactly what we did that caused 9/11?
Some people learn from past actions to make better decisions, but this current administration is against learning.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again...
Kurds are always happy to be used as pawns by the US
I think they sure were happy not to get slaughtered by ISIS
As I Kurds , I agree. Education is too important.
Where have I seen this movie before?
Ok, but can we give the Kurds the lasting support and right to immigrate easily we keep promising them? They've been some of our greatest allies, especially in the region (actual allies unlike Israel), and we keep leaving them out to dry.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Oh look, we like the Kurds again this week
This can only end well….. right?
Isn't this a remake of an 80's movie starring Osama bin Laden?
I'm sure Turkey will appreciate that.
If you can't destabilise them one way, change your strategy and try again! 😞
Headline should read, " Stand by for future wave of ISIS and Taliban".
The Kurds have never been part of ISIS or the Taliban.
No, the Kurds are the ethnicity that always sides with the US, and then the US abandons them.
Been happening since at least the 1920s.
Kurds using new weapons to stage terrorist attacks in Turkey in 3... 2...
John Ratcliffe is going to intentionally fuck this up and get as many Americans killed as he can trying to create a justification.
view more: next ›