How many of you remember that haunting photograph of a Kurdish girl on the cover of the National Geographic a number of years ago? That was after the first Gulf War when we dumped the Kurds, after promising to support them against Saddam Hussein. She was one of the tens of thousands of refugees who ended up high in the mountains in order to escape from Saddam's army. It was only through the efforts of some NGOs as well as the US Army's Special Forces who desperately tried to help them, that not all of those Kurds perished! The hauntingly beautiful green-eyed Kurdish girl was the poster child for that horrible part of the ongoing sad history with the Kurds.
Yes, we promised to support the Kurds if they rose up against Saddam, which they did, but then we abandoned them and Saddam proceeded to use chemical warfare against them, trying to exterminate the Kurds! Amazingly, when we launched the second Gulf War, the so-called Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Kurds once again agreed to support our efforts in Iraq! But then, when you really think about it, they had no choice, we were the only ones that offered any kind of assistance or help for them to fight their enemies. Noticed I said "enemies," not in singular! That is because the Kurds were not only fighting Saddam who was pushing them from the south, but the Turks as well, who had been persecuting the Kurds for centuries! So, despite our earlier betrayal in the first Gulf War, they agreed to help us and pushed southward, thereby securing huge chunks of real estate for us without our having to use large forces. We only dispatched our Special Forces and air coverage, the Kurds did all the rest. In the south, of course, we had to use our armor and infantry, army and marines to secure ground, and the continuous pounding from the air!
We wanted to transport our ground troops through Turkey, using their air space, but Turkey would not allow us to do that! Yes, good ol' Turkey, our ally would not allow us to fly our troops from Europe, rather than making that long transatlantic journey from U.S. However, when the Kurds and our Special Forces were able to secure most of Northern Iraq, we were able to fly the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Italy without using Turkish air space and drop them in Northern Iraq, thanks to the Kurds!
After we had defeated Saddam for the second time, the insurgency ensued and we were involved in fighting a counterinsurgency war somewhat similar in nature to our fight against Viet Cong in long ago Vietnam. We quickly discovered that we could not rely on the newly trained Iraqi forces, that the only ones we could rely on were the Kurds, their fighters, the Peshmergas, which literally means "those who face death!" We promised them a spot in the new Iraqi government, that with Saddam gone, they no longer had to face the age old discrimination and hostility. But guess what, when Obama pulled us out from Iraq and handed the country over to Maliki, things went right down the tubes. Maliki, after promising to include the Kurds in the new government, shut them out completely! What did we do? Nothing!
Today, the Kurds are the only ones that are really fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Oh sure, Iraqi forces are fighting ISIS when they are attacked, and recently had some success regaining some territory. But don't be fooled by the new successes and all the brave talk coming out of Baghdad. If things get dicey again, the Iraqi forces will collapse! But not so with the Kurds! Despite the fact that they are a minority, they continue to fight ISIS and the Turks in Turkey and along the border!
I've mentioned in an earlier blog that all medicine, food, and arms supply must go through Iraqi central distribution. We cannot deliver the goods directly to the Kurds. You know as well as I do that the Kurds will not receive the needed supplies, the Iraqis will keep the stuff themselves and probably sell it to ISIS! In the meanwhile, the Kurds are finding themselves short of supplies! Those supplies are ours, and we should not have to clear it through the Iraqis. I don't know why were are being such wimps and are allowing the Iraqis, who are 100% dependent on us, to bully us like that!
The Kurds have been at war for a long, long time. Naturally, they are starting to feel the pinch in manpower. So, a few years ago the Kurds decided to create an all female unit of Peshmergas. Naturally it is a volunteer unit, and the Kurds did not quite expect such a positive response from their women. There was no shortage of volunteers and now this all female Peshmerga unit is a Brigade, made up of about 3,000 to 4,000 women! They have proven themselves to be a force to contend with, as fearless and ferocious fighters as their male counterparts. The European media has quickly nick-named them the "Amazons of the Middle East" and they are covered regularly in the European press. I am kind of surprised that the American press has more or less ignored them. Why, I don't really know. You would think they would make good news copy, but for whatever reason, our news media has stayed away from covering the female Peshmergas. In fact, there has been very little coverage of Peshmergas or Kurds overall. Is it because the media is trying to help out Obama's administration and save it some embarrassment for lack of support of the Kurds? I don't know, but it is puzzling.
Considering the horrible way ISIS treats and murders its captives, you can imagine what they would do to a female Peshmerga if and when they capture one. But still, there is no shortage of Kurdish women volunteers! These extraordinarily brave women, indeed the entire Kurdish nation, deserves our undying and unconditional support. They are the only ones in the region who have been steadfastly loyal to us, despite our periodic betrayals! Instead, our government supports the corrupt and disloyal (yes, they are not loyal to us, they are now allied with Iran and Russia!) Iraqi government, pouring-in billions and billions of tax payers' money into a bottomless pit! Yes, we have some real smart folks in our government as leaders!
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