ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurds are more patriotic to the United States than the American people themselves, a former US army general told Rudaw in an interview last week. “I think what we should do is we should ... bring Iraqi Kurdistan [Kurdistan Region] into our form and establish it as a protectorate [of the] United States,” said Lieutenant General Jay Garner. The people will stay free, the US will just guarantee their protection, he added. In 2003, Garner was selected to lead the post-war reconstruction in Iraq following the US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein. However, he was replaced a few months after his inauguration. Garner believes the Kurdistan Region will have other opportunities for its independence, but he doesn’t see the area as a “big Kurdistan.” “I don’t see the Kurdish independence as a big Kurdistan. I think that’s too hard. I think Kurdish independence is probably the entity that right now that we call the Iraqi Kurdistan,” he said. “The way to do that is make them US protected. You guard them from Baghdad, Iranians, Turks, and everybody else,” Garner added. Washington has had a solid relationship with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. The US provides millions of dollars of aid to Kurdish Peshmerga forces, which is a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
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