https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/iran-could-be-a-forever-war-if-the-kurds-join-the-fight/articleshow/129204753.cms?from=mdr%E3%80%82

Iran could be a ‘forever war’ if the Kurds join the fight

By Marc Champion, BloombergLast Updated: Mar 07, 2026, 02:04:00 PM IST 

A Kurdish ground insurgency against Iran could significantly change the course of the current conflict but may also risk creating a prolonged and unstable war, analysts warn. The idea has emerged as the United States and Israel continue strikes aimed at weakening Iran’s leadership and security structure.

You can’t accuse the US of mission creep one week into a war, especially when the initial goals for Operation Epic Fury were so broadly defined as to be unknowable. But taking President Donald Trump’s four-to-five-week timeframe for hostilities as a guide, the launch of a Kurdish ground insurgency to help bring about regime change would qualify.

This way lies forever war, though not in the way that’s usually meant. I don’t believe for a second that Trump will put regular American troops on the ground in Iran or stay for years. I mean the kind of forever war that the US and Israel start, and walk away from. 

There’s no question that a Kurdish insurgency could change the outlook for this conflict. It’s clear from Israel’s increasing focus on striking Iran’s domestic security and political architecture that the desired end-state is a change — or at least collapse — of the Tehran regime. Trump looks to be on board, if unrealistic in insisting that the Islamic Republic should give him a say in choosing its next leader.

The president has also said he would welcome the Kurds’ military involvement, and he has been on the phone with their leaders. Military formations have been seen preparing on the Iraqi side of the border with Iran. The Iranians have made preemptive missile strikes against them. Local markets in Iraq have seen a sudden surge in sales of warm weather and other gear needed for the frontier’s high mountains. They seem just to be waiting for a green light.

Though regime change has never been achieved by air power alone, it has been done in conjunction with a local ground insurgency, so there is some logic to creating one. But the example was Libya, where the continuing chaos 15 years later should give more pause than encouragement.