"Direct Action" and Kurds

     With the recent death of Army Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler in Iraq during a raid on an ISIS compound, our government has created a new definition for combat.  It is not combat anymore, it is now the politically correct term, "direct action."  It seems that Master Sergeant Wheeler did not die as a result of ground combat in which he participated with the peshmerga commando unit, but rather he was killed as a result of "direct action." 
     Now, you must admit that "direct action" sounds a lot less dangerous or menacing than "hostile" action, or god forbid, "combat!"  We are very PC.  Since President Obama announced that we will no longer have any combat troops in Iraq, we no longer participate in combat.  We are there to advise and train, and observe.  Only an air war will be conducted against ISIS.  Ground combat?  Perish the thought!  Remember the words of Obama's speech at Fort Bragg after he announced our withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq?  He said, "I am bringing this war to a close!  After more than a decade, I am ending this war and no American life will be put in harms way any more!  We will have only a small contingent of advisors and trainers."  Ambitious words they were! It also gave ISIS and Al Qaeda a clear "green light" to launch and escalate their campaigns in Iraq.
     You might recall my earlier blogs on this subject when I said that there is no way that the so-called U.S. "advisors and trainers" will stay out of combat if they are to train, advise, and lead the Iraqi forces.  Yet, our leaders insisted that no U.S. soldier will be put in harms way any more.  Now, after Wheeler's death, the Secretary of Defense refers to his death as a result of "direct action!"  At the same time, it is interesting to note how the fact that the peshmerga's were accompanied by Delta was sort of skipped over.  Delta, incidentally, as everyone knows, is not an advisory or training unit, nor is it a defensive unit!  It is strictly an offensive arm of the Special Operations, used specifically to conduct raids and other offensive operations.  But I guess in this case Delta was there as an observer.  Incidentally, depending on the nature of the mission, the degree of classification, deaths with Delta are not necessarily released to the public.  So a Delta operator could be killed in a highly classified mission and his death will not be made public.  That is standard procedure for units such as Delta.
     Nowadays it is hard to believe anything that our government says about our activities in the Middle East or elsewhere for that matter.  Everything is obfuscated, I'd hate to think what else we are being told besides that combat is now "direct action,"  Our leaders have been known to play a bit loose with facts in the past, but it seems that it has now reached the point of being an art form, we really don't know what actually is taking place!
     The other side of this whole situation in Iraq is our continual dependence on the Kurds and the peshmergas.  As I have said repeatedly in earlier blogs, they are the only ones doing any fighting!  The Kurds are the only ones that we can depend on, yet, we have betrayed them twice before and have betrayed them for the third time recently.  However, the Kurds have no choice but to ally with us, we are the only ones that at least provide them with arms!
     The most recent betrayal of Kurds took place when we made Turkey our ally in our fight against ISIS.  The Turks are fighting ISIS, sort of, but they are also fighting Kurds!  The Turks are paranoid about having Kurds gain independence and, therefore, have their own sovereign territory, Kurdistan.  If Kurdistan becomes an independent state, it will take up a good portion of Turkish real estate!  So, the Turks are probably fighting Kurds with more enthusiasm than they are fighting ISIS!  What are we going to do with Kurds when we ultimately pull out of that region, which we will, sooner or later!  It would be another travesty, a human tragedy if we do abandon them as we abandoned the Montagnards and the Nungs in Vietnam!
     One small way that we can try to help the Kurds before everything falls apart again is to take on Kurdish refugees.  Among the refugees that are escaping Syria and landing in Greece and other Balkan countries are Kurds.  Recently one of our intelligence organizations said that there is no way that we can vet all the refugees that we will be taking in!  There are some that fear there will be ISIS or Al Qaeda members in the midst of these refugees, no doubt that will be the case.  One way to lower that possibility is to take Kurds!  There are no known ISIS or Al Qaeda members that are of Kurdish origin!  We owe the Kurds, so why not take all of the Kurdish refugees?  Seems to me a logical solution.
     I fear for Kurds.  I fear that the same thing will happen to them that happened to those unfortunate people who blindly and loyally fought for us in Vietnam.  Fortunately for the Kurds, they are a much larger group of people than Nungs (who were a very tiny minority) and the Montagnards (who are also relatively small in numbers).  The Kurds are a sizable population that is spread across Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.  They are also found in small pockets in Armenia and other surrounding countries.  So, although they have been persecuted historically for centuries and will probably continue to be persecuted, unless they gain independence, but they will survive for better or worse.
     As long as we are in that part of the world engaged in war against ISIS, Al Qaeda, or any other such Islamic Terror groups, we will rely on the Kurds to be our allies.  They are the only ones that we can count on when the chips are down, as we have discovered after more than a decade of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Syria (indirectly, that is!). We now also have a new name for combat, a more PC term, "direct action."  I wonder what the definition of "indirect action" would be in this case?