The Kurds who "rose up" did so as a close ally of Israel, making the domestic excuses for their sedition more opaque. Add to them the Takfiri rebels, who also enjoyed Israeli patronage, and you have a dissident brew redolent of the mujaheddin, who Zbigniew Brzezinski boasted having sponsored (as a part of an effort to lure the Soviets into a government-destabilizing conflict).