For three decades Kurdistan boomed while the rest of Iraq sputtered. The region had the country’s fastest economic growth. But the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) is now losing strength.

The repeated betrayals have earned the U.S. a reputation of inconsistency and unreliability in its treatment of the Kurds. As the saying goes, the Kurds have “no friends but the mountains” and it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against this sentiment.