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NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reported that both Kurdish fighters and American advisers are upset with the lack of support provided by the United States in the fight against ISIS on Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC.
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| Kurdish woman and youngster defending Kobane |
“We went out with Kurdish forces, we went to their newest, most front line position, not far from the Mosul Dam.
And while we were there, we saw a very meager base with light weapons, just some berms that were put up made of sand, and the Kurdish fighters were complaining that they are not getting the amount of support they need from the United States.
The Kurds really are in this fight, yet they’re complaining they’re not nearly getting the weapons, the training, the manpower, the number of airstrikes, drone support, almost everything you could imagine, to take the battle forward” he stated.
Engel continued, “I’ve spoken with some American advisers, they are very frustrated. They feel they were sent here on a mission to help the Kurds, to help fight against ISIS, but the weapons just aren’t coming and that there’s not a full commitment for a variety of geopolitical reasons that means the weapons and the support aren’t coming here.”
He concluded that the problem is “we talk about a larger war against ISIS, with a grand international coalition, with Jordan and the Arab world now up in arms after the burning of the pilot. It doesn’t really work that way. You have so many different pieces of the puzzle here.
One reason the US denies Kurds the weapons to fight ISIS
The Kurds want an independent country, they want Kurdistan, and that’s the reason why the US isn’t sending them a lot of weapons, because Baghdad, which is also fighting against ISIS, sort of, they’re not doing a lot of fighting, they don’t want Kurdistan to be an independent country.
The weapons that are supposed to come here are still going through the central Baghdad government, even though Kurdistan really feels like it has nothing to do anymore with the Baghdad government, and that is just one of the complications that we are seeing in this general war against ISIS, the broader coalition.
The US is trying to support the Kurds, and give them some weapons, but not give them enough so that they upset Baghdad and give Baghdad the impression that the US wants the Kurds to break away.
So, the Kurds are getting some of the weapons, but not enough so that they could arm themselves and break away, which leaves the fight against ISIS hanging in the battle.
The Iraqi Army is still incredibly weak, it is still incredibly corrupt, it is viewed as a Shiite militia, increasingly, it is just the Shiite militia who are backed by Iran, that are running the Iraqi Army, not this unified, independent army that is ready to take on ISIS, that is a myth.”
Source
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/02/06/report-kurds-us-advisors-complaining-about-us-help-in-isis-fight/
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Who truly deserves a state: the Palestinians or the Kurds?
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/who-does-truly-deserve-state.html
February 6, 2015: Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz urges Western states to give more military aid to Kurds and to Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt, that are fighting jihadis. Steinitz said he saw no immediate threat to Jordan's sovereignty from Islamic State: "If there will be such a threat, I believe the world and even if necessary Israel will interfere," he said.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-minister-urges-West-to-give-more-arms-to-Kurds-Jordan-390261
US HUMANITARIAN AID GOING TO ISIS
But little or nothing to KURDS fighting ISIS -
The US and the world are also generously giving money to terrorist HAMAS.
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/us-humanitarian-aid-going-to-isis-but.html
October 2014 - Reports of a secret deal between the US and Muslim countries for the massacre of Kurds at the hands of ISIS.
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-alleged-secret-deal-between-us-and.html
October 2014 - THE WEST'S FAKE WAR ON ISIS
KERRY SAYS CITY OF KOBANI NOT A US STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE, while Kurdish families wait to be massacred -
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-wests-fake-war-on-isis-kerry-says.html
January 2015: Kurds won battle of Kobane, against all odds
The US was shamed into providing Kurds with some aid by bombing here and there to slow down the ISIS takeover of Kobane.
But it was the fierce fight by Kurds that finally defeated ISIS and the Kurds retook their town.
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/01/kurds-defeat-isis-in-kobane-pictures-of.html
More on the Kurds on this blog
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The Daily Mail summary of Kurdish history
Since the fall of the Ottoman Empire the Kurdish population of northern Iraq has suffered at the hands of a series of hard-line rulers.
With no country to call their own, Iraqi Kurds have been overpowered in clashes with Turkey, Britain and Iran, and have been systematically persecuted by Saddam Hussein's regime.
More on the Kurds on this blog
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Middle%20East%20-%20Kurds
Parts of the north, around Mosul, came under British rule at the end of the First World War and 1923 saw the first of many violent uprisings from a Kurdish people hungry for the chance to rule their own land.
After 20 more years of struggle, Mullah Mustafa Barzani emerged as the figurehead for Kurdish separatism. His son is still in charge of the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Barzani helped set up a Kurdish Republic in Iran in 1946 but it was crushed - this time by Iranian soldiers -forcing the KDP leader into exile.
When the monarchy in Iraq was overthrown in 1958, Barzani returned and there seemed to be genuine hope for the Kurds when a new Iraqi constitution officially recognised their national rights.
Just two years later his KDP was broken up by the Iraqi government after another uprising in the north.
Peace deal signed in 1970
A peace deal between the government of Iraq and the Kurdish rebels was eventually signed in 1970, granting recognition of their language and self-rule in the north.
But over the next few years the situation worsened with more clashes over who should control the oil-rich area around Kirkuk
Barzani died in 1979 and the leadership of the re-founded KDP was passed to his son, Massoud Barzani.
But a new force had already emerged in Kurdish politics when Jalal Talabani left the KDP to found the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
These two men are still the dominant figures of Kurdish politics, each having a near-exact half share of popular support.
Kurds sided with Iran
During the Iran-Iraq War, which began in 1980, the situation for the Kurds in the north deteriorated dramatically.
The KDP had sided with the Iranians against Saddam Hussein and helped launch a counter attack from the north.
But, angered by the uprising, Saddam ordered his troops into the area around Barzani's home in 1983. About 8,000 people were killed.
During the war both the KDP and PUK received funding from Iran - which only served to make
Saddam even more determined to punish the Kurds.
In 1988 Saddam ordered a massive operation known as the "Anfal Campaign" against the Kurdish population.
Poison attack
Undoubtedly his most notorious act against the Kurds came on on March 16 when his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, directed the poison gas attack on the town of Halabja.
Al-Majid - who led the brutal purges across the north, killing more than 100,000 people - was given the nickname "Chemical Ali" for masterminding the Halabja massacre.
The use of nerve agents on the mainly Kurdish town killed up to 5,000 civilians and injured another 10,000.
When the attack started some victims tried to protect themselves by taking cover in cellars and basements - but they did not know that the poisonous gas was heavier than air.
The legacy of that attack has been increased rates of cancer and other illness in the town and to fuel Kurdish hatred of Saddam's regime across the region.
Rebellion crushed in 1991
After the 1991 Gulf War the Kurds launched another massive uprising but the Allies who liberated Kuwait did not get involved.
The rebellion was crushed by Saddam's army, creating more than one million Kurdish refugees.
The Kurds' situation worsened when neighbouring Turkey closed its borders to refugees.
During the 1990s the PUK and KDP fought a bitter civil war for control of the Kurdish-dominated parts of northern Iraq, which had been designated a "safe haven" protected by US forces.
Talabani and Barzani agreed a peace in 1998 and on March 3 this year signed a joint leadership deal for the north of Iraq.
During the current Iraq war, Kurdish soldiers have been keen to work with US special forces on the northern front against Saddam's army.
But Kurdish separatists have been hoping the war will give them the chance to seize control of Kirkuk and make the city the capital of a new Kurdistan.
Both the coalition and Turkey are completely opposed to such a move. The much oppressed Kurds, however, may not abandon their hopes without a fight.
Source
More on the Kurds on this blog
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Middle%20East%20-%20Kurds
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