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| Iraq | |
| Kurds are starting to panic in war against ISIS | |
| 2015-06-07 | |
| The Kurds desperately need an influx of arms and supplies in order to be able to continue to hold their 600-mile long border against ISIS attacks. The need for weapons has only increased over the past months as the militant group has effectively plundered Iraqi military bases after overrunning cities, Yaroslav Trofimov reports from Kurdish-controlled areas for The Wall Street Journal. "Peshmerga ammunition stocks are running low and whatever heavy weapons they have are mostly of Saddam Hussein-era vintage," Trofimov reports, citing Peshmerga commanders. Currently, Kurdish lines throughout Iraq consist of defenses manned by Peshmerga troops armed with outdated weapons with dwindling supplies of ammunition.
This lack of direct aid has forced the Kurds to lobby the EU directly for medical aid, funding, and military support. On the ground, Kurdish commanders complained to The Journal that each loss the Iraqi military suffers directly aids ISIS and further empowers them against the Peshmerga. "[ISIS] target us with weapons that were abandoned in Ramadi," Mustafa Sayid Qadir, the minister of Peshmerga affairs, told The Journal. "Wouldn’t it have been better if the Iraqi army had given them to us instead of giving them to ISIS?” | |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #19 How long have I been beating this drum here? Even longer than that I've argued the same in SCIF areas. Foggy Bottom and the executive office simply dont give a shit. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2015-06-07 22:47 |
| #18 D *** NG IT, that's ridiculous, WHY SHOULD THE KURDS, NATO-EU, + OUR EAST ASIA ALLIES, ETAL. WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING WID MIGHTY "RED LINE" DEFENDER" POTUS OBAMA BEHIND THEM! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2015-06-07 19:46 |
| #17 Feed the Kurds arms and ammo and they will keep the north free. Which is why Washington never will allow it. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-06-07 18:50 |
| #16 Remember, Barry and Co. including McCain were early backers of the anti-Assad group which was forming into ISJV. On the Risk board, ISJV works in Obama's favor as a counterweight to Russia and Iran. I think Obama sees a kindred spirit in Erdogon. Turkey makes money off of arms shipped through the Hellespont and by ISJV human traffic. If the Kurdistanis are not 9 months into formal recognition, they missed their window. If they are and nobody has heard about it, then who is blocking it? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2015-06-07 16:57 |
| #15 Which may not be a bad thing for the country. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-07 16:45 |
| #14 A broken femur and a long medivac flight will take a 70 year old out of circulation for a while. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2015-06-07 16:45 |
| #13 As an aside, has anyone heard from Sec'y. Kerry lately? The bicycle accident seems to have taken him out of the picture for an unusual amount of time. Bibi looks better. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-07 13:58 |
| #12 "FUND THE KURDS, YOU WASHINGTON TURDS!!!!" |
| Posted by: Harry Sproing6080 2015-06-07 13:30 |
| #11 As an aside, has anyone heard from Sec'y. Kerry lately? The bicycle accident seems to have taken him out of the picture for an unusual amount of time. |
| Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 2015-06-07 13:22 |
| #10 Baghdad has also refused to pay the Kurdish regional government or Kurdish civil servants. The last I read, Baghdad was paying the government employees and civil servants in Mosul, run by ISIS. Baghdad has also supplied munitions to ISIS (voluntarily or not, remains to be seen). |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2015-06-07 11:55 |
| #9 Almost, Al? |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2015-06-07 11:36 |
| #8 All arms are routed through Baghdad and Baghdad is reluctant to supply the Kurds? Because Baghdad is more interested in fighting the Kurds than fighting ISIS? The first thing Al-Maliki did was purge the Kurdish officers out of the army. Baghdad has also refused to pay the Kurdish regional government or Kurdish civil servants. The real problem is Obama is still coddling the Baghdad government even though the Europeans are arming the Kurds directly. It's almost as if Obama wants ISIS to win. Al |
| Posted by: frozen al 2015-06-07 11:03 |
| #7 Obama has aligned himself with Baghdad and with Erdogan, and both are enemies of the Kurds and oppose a prospective Kurdish state. It is only thanks to European states that the Kurds have managed to do as well as they have. In Irbil one notes the presence of Brit and South Africa mercs, while the large CIA presence is accused of thumb-sucking. A |
| Posted by: Gomez Uneager8139 2015-06-07 10:45 |
| #6 Don't forget Turkey's influence with "Da West", JQC |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-07 10:29 |
| #5 All arms are routed through Baghdad and Baghdad is reluctant to supply the Kurds? That is a large part of the problem. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-06-07 09:11 |
| #4 "The Fighting Whales" would be a good band name. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2015-06-07 08:59 |
| #3 ..cause like Belgium which is stuck between Germany and France, and Korea which is stuck between China and Japan, the people and the land have been the playing field of big boys. There is an old Korean saying something along the lines - when whales fight, shrimp backs are broken. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-06-07 08:29 |
| #2 But why do the Kurds get screwed? Not Arab and not Persian? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2015-06-07 07:56 |
| #1 There are two, invariant, rules in post WWII ME. (a) Everybody hates the Jews. (b) Kurds always get screwed. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-06-07 01:42 |