As the consequences of last week's Kurdish independence referendum unfold in Iraq, the U.S. role in the conflict is under the spotlight. Over the past two years, the U.S. government has helped pay Kurdish peshmerga salaries in exchange for their support against Islamic militants in Iraq. But peshmerga officials recently told media, including Al Monitor, that there are no plans to renew direct U.S. military aid to the group. (The last round of aid expired in early September.) If Washington does, in fact, pull its direct financial aid to the Kurdish fighters, it would mark a distinct change in approach. The peshmerga have formed a critical part of the U.S. fight against the Islamic State. Yet, that fight has changed considerably since the United States first began supporting the Kurdish forces, shifting geographically and leaving a significantly weakened Islamic State .