Eli Lake, Columnist

Iraq's Kurds Have Earned Their Right to Independence

The U.S. should offer full-throated support, not a quibble over timing.

September 12, 2017 at 3:43 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

The very model of a modern ethnic group seeking self-determination.
Photographer: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

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Consider the plight of an ethnic group seeking self-determination in the Middle East.

Its leaders have renounced terrorism. Their militias fight alongside U.S. soldiers. While their neighbors built weapons of mass destruction, they built a parliament, universities and the infrastructure for an independent state. And they pursue independence through a recognized legal process, enshrined in their country's constitution.