Why is the United States opposed to an independent Kurdish State?

Well, I'll take a shot.

- Kurds are immortal enemies of the Arabs, Turks, Armenians, and Iranians.

None of these groups wants the Kurds to have a state.

All of these groups fall under alliances to either a current or former superpower.

Therefore, they have no state.

I'm sure if the Kurds only had enemies on one side of the NATO/Russia fight, the other would have made an effort to create a Kurdish state.

Also: we just foolishly invested a few dollars into building up Iraq as a sovereign nation. We lose face if they break up.

I'll take Saudi Arabia for $1000 Alex

Because all the major groups will declare war including Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The independent state takes land and resources from those countries.

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Who's land are they supposed to be taking from this when Kurds are generally from 4 different countries?

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This is the fundamental question and nobody wants to give a chunk of important land to the Kurds. The US doesn't need this headache we are trying to unite these groups against ISIS.

The land that they won with blood and sweat from ISIS that they already lived in the first place

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he kurds are having an independence referendum this week and it is expected to pass.

The United States and its allies oppose the measure. Why is that?

No flaming. Just want the rationale here.

Would love to hear from MrCarton here as that dude is pretty fricking solid when it comes to the mideast.

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not trying to flame here, but why do you (and a majority of americans) not know the answer to this?

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The kurds are having an independence referendum this week and it is expected to pass.

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For numerous reasons.

First a primer. The Kurds are an ethnic Persian group that are spread across multiple countries in West Asia, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. There are about 25 to 35 million Kurds. There are a couple of major groups . The PYD/YPG, the PKK, the KDP, the KNC, and the PUK. They are not a monolithic group. The referendum is an extension of the KDP and PUK, groups that fought a civil war in the 1990s, with the KDP vs the PUK/PKK, and invited Turkish intervention in 1997.

The Turks have been fighting a 40 year civil war with the PKK, as 20% of their population is Kurdish, and some Syrian Kurds, who make up the PYD/YPG, are descendants of Kurds who were displaced from Anatolia during the rise of Turkish nationalism. There is a great deal of historical animosity between those two groups, so much so that an independent Kurdish state would almost certainly ensure war with Turkey.

The other Kurdish groups were funded by different governments. For example, the Iraqi Kurds received funding from the Iranians in both the pre-Shah and post-Shah era, and the same is true of the Iranian Kurds.

An independent Kurdish state would fracture Iraq, and would send southern Iraq further into Iran's orbit, while at the same time alienating the Sunni's in Western Iraq. Turkey would immediately be openly hostile to an independent Kurdish state, depending on its shape, while Iraqi nationalists want to prevent the Kurds from leaving so as to limit Iranian influence. The Iranians are likely to suppress their Kurdish elements that want independence as well. Also in the Iraqi case, a key pipeline to Turkey goes through Kurdistan, and access to those payments is seen as key in rebuilding Iraq.

I think a completely independent state would almost certainly spell a major war at some point in time. An autonomous Kurdish region within Iraq is the most likely avenue to avoid a major war.