8/6/14, "The Kurdish forces facing the Islamic State need help from the United States," Washington Post Editorial Board
"A new humanitarian and security crisis has erupted in northern Iraq, where the al-Qaeda-derived Islamic State borders territories controlled by Iraqi and Syrian Kurds. Since last weekend, tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped on a mountainside near the Iraqi town of Sinjar, which was captured by Islamic State fighters. The refugees, including an estimated 25,000 children,
lack supplies of food and water and could perish in a matter of days
unless a relief corridor is opened, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the extremist forces are threatening to capture Iraq’s two largest dams and are pressing toward Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Both
the potential human cost and the threat to U.S. interests are vastly
greater than in the Gaza Strip, which has consumed the attention of
Secretary of State John F. Kerry and senior White House officials in
recent weeks. An Iraqi minority group concentrated in the contested
area, the Yazidis, is facing nothing less than genocide at the hands of
the Islamic State, which considers the sect heretical.
Meanwhile, the
strongest and most reliable U.S. ally remaining in the region, the
Kurdistan government, is struggling to hold the line against Islamic
State forces.
The Obama administration’s
response to this emergency, however, has been listless. U.S. officials
have reportedly authorized the direct supply of munitions
to Kurdish forces, which have been attempting to retake Sinjar, and
have coordinated attacks by the Iraqi air force against Islamic State
targets. It has also pushed the Iraqi government to carry out a
humanitarian air drop in the area where the Yazidi refugees are
stranded, though the operation achieved only limited results, according to a report by The Post’s Loveday Morris.
Kurdish
forces still suffer from the warped and outdated U.S. policy toward
Iraq, which prioritizes maintaining a strong central government in
Baghdad over aiding the secular, democratic and pro-Western Kurds. A
Kurdish delegation that visited Washington last month seeking direct
military aid to fight the Islamic State was rebuffed.
Administration officials contend they cannot act without the consent
and cooperation of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, even though his
sectarian policies are largely responsible for returning the country to
civil war.
President Obama dispatched some 800 U.S. personnel to Iraq
earlier this summer in order to evaluate the Islamic State threat,
protect the U.S. embassy and coordinate assistance. But the
administration has refrained from major new aid initiatives or U.S.
military action, saying that it first wants to see the formation of a
broadly representative Iraqi government. That goal may not be achievable
in the near future, or ever; meanwhile, the extremist Islamist forces
continue to advance, both in Iraq and Syria.
Mr.
Obama is right to deny new support to the Iraqi government as long as
the toxic Mr. Maliki remains in office. But it can and should act
immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in northern Iraq and to
further support Kurdish forces, which face the Islamic state along a 600-mile border.
If the Iraqi airlift of supplies to the stranded Yazidis is
ineffective, the United States should consider other action to save the
refugees. It also should supply Kurds with the heavy weapons they have
requested and, if necessary, use U.S. air power to stop the Islamic
State forces from advancing further." via Mark Levin show
.
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