Or, so I understand. The Kurds have been a problem for Iran, Turkey, and Iraq for a long time. They are independent-minded and have long fought for their own, independent country. Saddam Hussein had to fight them to keep them in line, and this was one of the excuses that we used in 2003 to go to war against Saddam, but the Kurdish independence movement is nothing new. They were never fully integrated into Iraq. They have never been fully integrated into either Turkey or Iran. They see themselves (with good reason) as an independent nation living in hostile territory. The breakdown of Iraq as a sovereign state (which we facilitated) gave them hope for independence. At present, the Shiite government of Iraq can't help them. They're barely holding their ground against IS. IS, for its part, is determined to exterminate heretics (like the Kurds), and given that the Shiite Iraqi government can't protect the Kurds, they are defenseless. They are trying to hold their own against IS, but IS inherited Saddam Hussein's military institutional knowledge and have seized a lot of weapons that give them an advantage over the Kurds. Only the United States can help the Kurds at the moment.
You're right to worry that we may become entangled, militarily, in this region for another 13 years. I am not happy about that, but I see no viable alternative. IS is a very real threat to peace and stability, and we continue to have vital interests in the Middle East.
-Laelth
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