Actually, he did not forget about them. The "no fly zone" to protect them from air attack exists to this day, and there was quite a bit of aid given, and an attempt to help the Kurdish tribes unite, until they broke out in war among themselves.
The Kurds are dispersed through eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northern Iran. Turkey, which is a NATO ally, did not want the breakup of Iraq and the creation of a Kurdish rump state, because it has problems with Kurdish separatists who would take inspiration from such a state. In southern Iraq, the Shi'ites are sympathetic to Iran, and Saudi Arabia fears the creation of a ministate that would permit Iran a staging ground for invasion, since the Shi'ites of Iran have claimed that they should protect Mecca and Medina. Other Arab states, allied with us for that operation, did not want to see the precedent of a breakup of the country in favor of national minorities, because of their own problems.
As for Reagan, we encouraged the Afghan tribes to work together, but soon they started quarreling, and after a few years, the Taliban took power. No one was willing to have us occupy the country to impose order, so it was left to the Afghanis themselves, and they blew it......... |
