Daesh is the enemy. Arming the Kurds is not going to cause a war of nations. If there are not enough troops that identify as Iraq, it is a waste of time and funding for the USA. Congress needs to come to grips with the reality of the Iraq War and move to support the ethnic groups that view the USA as an ally.
June 17, 2015
By Deb Riechmann
...Asked whether the 450 extra troops will make a difference in the fight against ISIS, Carter said the numbers are not as significant as the location, which is in the heart of Sunni territory. The U.S. is pushing for a more inclusive government in Baghdad that is representative of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, Iraq’s three major ethnic groups.
“As I’ve told Iraqi leaders, while the United States is open to supporting Iraq more than we already are, we must see a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government,” Carter said, adding that the Iraqi leaders understand the need to empower a multisectarian Iraqi force as well as addressing organizational and leadership failures...
For whatever it is worth, the USA is making a huge mistake by sending munitions into the region to train troops that will ultimately abandon the munitions they are issued to benefit Daesh. There are several times now the Iraqi military ran in the opposite direction allowing Daesh to take over more than that land; they took munitions as well. Then the Kurds are forced to match the next assault against their people.
Hasn't the USA had enough of this disaster? Have the people in the region had enough?
They need to defend themselves if they will.
I have just one suggestion DOD should consider. How many Iraqi citizens that consider themselves a part of the country of Iraq; and do not identify with their ethnicity first; are living in refugee camps? Just knowing there might be some sincere Iraqis in those camps doesn't mean they will fight. How will the DOD know those coming forward from a refugee camp are actually Iraqis?
But, the recruitment out of the refugee camps may prove to make a difference....
...Rep. Adam Smith, (click here) the committee’s ranking Democrat, cautioned that U.S. military might alone will not defeat IS.
“We can drop 200,000 U.S. troops in the middle of this. It won’t solve the problem,” Smith said.
Smith also questioned whether it’s not time to admit that Iraq is too fractured to continue trying to work through the central government in combating IS.
He asked Carter and Dempsey whether Baghdad should be told, “time’s up,” and the U.S. cannot afford to continue hoping a government of national unity can be established. “As I’ve said many times before, that cow has left the barn. Iraq is fractured. You can make a pretty powerful argument, in fact, that Iraq is no more,” Smith said.
Carter argued that it’s too soon to give up on Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who the U.S. believes is more willing to set up a representative government than his pro-Shia predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki.
“We have in Prime Minister Abadi … someone who I believe is genuinely committed to behaving in a decentralized, federalized, if you like, but multi-sectarian single state. … We’re still trying to support the prime minister in maintaining a decentralized but single unitary Iraqi state,” the defense secretary said....
