There is a distinct sense of déjà vu in the air, and it is emanating from the foreign policy desks of Western capitals and most noticeably from Western media organizations. As tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran reach a breaking point, the rumor mill is spinning at full speed.
The narrative currently being pushed is that the US is considering—or perhaps already executing—a plan to arm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups. The goal? To embed them in Iran’s border regions and turn them loose on a regime that is already reeling from internal dissent and the nonstop air campaign carried out by the US and Israel. There are even conflicting reports, some strenuously denied by Washington, that the US has asked Iraqi Kurds to join this campaign.
To the casual observer of Western media, this might sound like a pragmatic masterstroke of “realpolitik.” But to anyone possessing a rudimentary memory of modern history, this sounds like a terrifying rerun of a movie we know ends in tragedy.
Western media in particular and in some cases Western pundits and policymakers are currently attempting to superimpose the templates they are most familiar with onto a completely different landscape. They are looking at the contemporary Middle East through the dusty lens of the 1980s Afghan-Soviet war and that is a critical error. The assumption that Kurds can be utilized as a simple proxy force—much like the Mujahideen were against the Soviets—is not only intellectually lazy but strategically catastrophic and ethically disrespcting.
We must speak frankly to the Western media driving this narrative: the Kurds are not the Taliban.
Let’s look at the historical parallel that seems to be tempting the lazy, AI-driven, Western media and some so-called strategists in Washington. In the 1980s, Operation Cyclone funneled arms and money to the Afghan Mujahideen to give the Soviets their “own Vietnam.” It “worked.” The Soviets withdrew.
But we all know what happened next. The US took its hand off the wheel. The well-armed, highly motivated factions turned on each other, reducing Kabul to rubble. Out of that chaos emerged the Taliban, who then provided safe haven to Al-Qaeda. The proxy of yesterday became the nemesis of tomorrow. That is the inevitable consequence of viewing local groups not as people with legitimate aspirations, but as expendable tools of foreign policy.
Attempting to apply that “success” to today’s dynamics in Kurdistan is an exercise in profound ignorance.
For decades, Kurdish groups have fought for self-determination, federalism, and basic human and cultural rights within their respective nations. They are political entities with governing experience, not shadowy networks. When you look at the Iranian Kurds of today, you are looking at the people who championed the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement. They are fighting for a secular, pluralistic future, not a religious caliphate.
Furthermore, the domestic situation within Iran is fragile and complex. The greatest threat to the regime is the homegrown dissatisfaction of its population, not the missiles falling from the sky. The protest movements that have erupted across Iran have been remarkable for their multi-ethnic and non-sectarian unity.
The moment the West, represented by the US mainly and Israel as a guarantor, injects well-funded, ethnically specific armed groups into this delicate equation, they jeopardize that unity. It allows the regime to dust off its favorite propaganda script: that all internal dissent is simply the product of foreign meddling. An armed, US/Israel-backed Kurdish intervention, rather than triggering a general uprising, might actually compel nationalist-minded Iranians, and they do exist outside of the religious circles, to unite with the regime they hate in defense of their country.
Western media needs to stop trying to force-feed the public these outdated narratives. Relying on “reliable sources” in Washington who think in terms of chessboard maneuvers ignores the blood and dust on the ground.
The Kurdish people are not toys in a geopolitical sandbox. They have been betrayed by Western powers too many times to count—most recently in Syria when they were abandoned to Turkish intervention after they did the heavy lifting of fighting ISIS. They are right to be skeptical of any US overture, and the West, mainly the US, should be skeptical of its intentions.
If the West wants to support the people of Iran in their fight for freedom, they must do so by supporting the organic, internal, and political opposition movements. Attempting to manufacture an armed proxy war along ethnic fault lines is not the solution. It is a cynical gamble that ignores the hard-learned lessons of the past.
(This article and all opinions are personal.)
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