President Obama has authorised air strikes in Iraq, but was his hand forced by a strategic decision to withdraw Kurdish forces?
by Michael Goldfarb / August 8, 2014 / Leave a comment
Islamic State militants and tribal fighters take control of a checkpoint that used to be controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters ©AP Photo
The Middle East madness of the last three years has finally arrived in Kurdistan.
With thousands of Yazidis trapped by IS (Islamic State) on Sinjar mountain, and around 200,000 Iraqi Christian Arabs and Kurds in the north of the country fleeing the insurgent army, according to the UN, President Obama’s hand has been forced.
“Earlier this week, one Iraqi cried that there is no one coming to help,” President Obama told Americans on Thursday night. “Well, today America is coming to help.”
The President authorised limited airstrikes against IS. F-18 fighter jets already accompanied relief flights dropping water supplies and food to the hapless Yazidis on the exposed mountainside.
The question ordinary Kurds are asking in and around the Kurdish capital of Erbil is, “What happened to the Peshmerga? Where did they go?”
Good question.
For Kurds it is a given that their Peshmerga fighters will protect them no matter what. They defended them during the flare-ups of fighting with Saddam and have, until the last week, kept them safe from the violent anarchy that has engulfed Iraq in the decade since the Bush administration overthrew the dictator without planning what to do next.
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