US and European Countries to Arm Kurds

Calls to arm Peshmerga forces from western officials

US and European Countries to Arm Kurds

11.08.2014

Nuwar Faqie
BasNews, Erbil

United States and European countries are thinking about directly arming Iraqi Kurds to fight extremist group Islamic State (IS).

According to Associated Press, a senior official from the Obama administration has revealed that Washington has started arming Kurds.

This comes after the France foreign minister Laurent Fabius stated that soon France and other European countries would discuss the possibility of giving heavy weapons to Iraq, especially Kurdish Peshmerga Forces.

In an interview with French media, Fabius pointed out that it is important for European countries to give heavy and modern weapons to Iraq, particularly Peshmerga forces in order that they are be able to defend and protect their homeland as well as other ethnic groups against the (IS) militants.

Fabius stated that soon, France would discuss this case in detail with other European countries.

He condemned the attacks of IS insurgents against people in Mosul and called it extreme violence and the mass killing of citizens. He noted that the international community must take more serious actions to stop IS threats and attacks.

On Sunday, Fabius visited Baghdad and Erbil, where he met with Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani, to discuss the current crisis in Iraq and Kurdistan region.

Previously, the U.S. had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the change of policy from the US comes after the Kurdistan President, in an op-ed in Washington Post, called on the White House to give Kurds weapons to defend themselves against extremist groups.

In the past week, the Kurdish leadership has repeated a few times that the weapons currently Peshmerga uses against IS insurgents are not of the same standard IS militants use.

What the actual instance of “arming” the Kurds will amount to, is to issue them MRE’s and somebody else’s cast-off sidearms. Oh, and some mismatched ammunition, as well.

They would do better to give them machetes.

But with some support that provides the Kurds with sufficient mobility, and field-grade artillery including JDAM systems, they would give a more than worthy response to the invaders now fracturing that legal fiction known as “Iraq”, a forced and artificial entity that should have splintered decades ago.

We have screwed over the Kurds so much these last 20 years it isn’t even funny, While we do need to give them weapons so they can defend themselves, they are one force that I wouldn’t blame if they later turned them on us for your betrayal of them... I wouldn’t blame them, but I wouldn’t condone that either.

We have created too many monsters in the middle east, we should at least do the right thing and arm the Kurds so they can at least protect themselves from some of the monsters we have created.

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