Do you have an argument or a meaningful point for discussion? Do you dispute that Sadr has taken a very non-sectarian role in all this? Your argument seems to be lacking coherence at the moment.
Is ‘assisting Iraqi counterterrorism forces to repel the insurgency’ purely a neocon strategy?
Who do you think the US Special Forces are hooking up with in bases in Northern Iraq? Would that not be Kurdish territory where our guys might be working with those Delta Force trained counter-terrorism Peshmerga units?
If you are a nascent state, you probably want to be seen by the other local powers as a responsible player, with some diplomatic awareness.
I somehow doubt that being seen to take part in a land grab for some territory that is only tenuously Kurdish would promote that view.
They would probably be better off waiting until someone invites them, and provides them with the supplies, and that someone is highly likely to have the ear of NATO.
Being invited to assist then has the implications of recognition rights, you can see why there would be some caution from various parties.
The Kurds can wait it out, ISIS is not liked by many of the main players and the Kurds have the means to defend themselves, they are organised - something that seems lacking on all sides of the Iraq breakup. No point in charging in to a costly adventure until there is something to be gained, for Kurds it is some sort of move toward recognising a national identity, which will be well short of full statehood, for them its a process that will take time.
It most likely portends that the Kurds are concerned about allowing in covert elements of ISIS, as well as the likelihood that this wave of refugees would tend to be more sympathetic towards them. After all, those fleeing now, are fleeing the same thing - the ISF and the militias. From your link:
The Kurdish region is nowhere near as secure and locked-down as some people seem to think it is. Here’s an article talking about the deep inroads that ISIS has been (and *had *been able to make, even before launching the offensives within Iraq) among the disaffected Kurdish youth, there.
All the more reason to believe that the Peshmerga CT trained forces will be eager to go after the ISIS vermin in the nests were they breed no matter how far beyond any territorial border the Kurds gainfully occupy.
You cant wait until the vermin attack on your soil before efforts to exterminate them begin.
The Kurds also benefit when the ISF strike ISIS and any internal Iraqi support that they find.
Also, if you’re Kurdish and trying to establish an independent Kurdish homeland, you don’t want a bunch of Arabs flooding in and diluting your majority status.
So what does that mean to the Kurds with respect to the reasons ‘a bunch of Arabs’ are flooding into the homeland? Wouid they not be interested in defeating the vermin that are causing the dislocations in the first place.
So long as it is not happening in their territory, why would they care, as far as they are concerned then having Iraqis fight each other creates the disunity that keeps unwanted attention on them, and gives them the opportunity to carry on with their state building.
You know, using dehumanizing terms like “vermin” and “exterminate” makes you look like a bit of a nut job. Before you go off on a rant about how bad ISIL is, I am not defending them. You’ve just got all this over the top G.I. Joe verbiage that I suppose you think makes some kind of impact but the impression is of someone who is mildly unhinged. “Light them up”? Come on dude.
I saw the photos of these vermin firing machine guns at point blank range into dozens of Iraqi Shiite males lying on their stomach in a makeshift mass graves. If they aren’t vermin I don’t know what is. If calling them vermin makes me a nut-job I’ll take it any day over glossing over the atrocities of this swine because Sunnis in Iraq feel disenfranchized from the Shiite majority in Iraq.
When alQaeda disavows you for extreme bloodthirsty acts your vermin status is pretty much established as I see it.
Indeed. In what some are calling “The Revenge of the Kurds”, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish regional government makes it clear what their plans are:
No. You don’t seem to care about arguments either. For a long time in these threads you were adamant that the Kurds were jumping into the fight to save Iraq. After a bazillion cites and quotes to the contrary, do you admit error? Of course not. Just drop it from your diatribes. Pfft to you sir. I could care less whether you care.
You have produced nothing that shows the Kurds would not help save Baghdad/Iraq from the ISIS attack. Just because they are not needed because the Shiites and ISF have counter attacked does not mean the Kurdd were in favor of seeing Baggdad fall to terrorists from Syria.
And you also play the game that disputed territory is not somehow still part of Iraq
Kurds went beyond their established borders to fight ISIS and thus defend Iraq as this source shows:
One foot outside their border wipes out your argument. Sorry. That’s the way it is. And the Kurds are still part of Iraq, so defending their territory is defending Iraq. They may end up leaving Iraq, or maybe not. But they have not left yet.
Not to mention that is 30 miles form the official border. The Kurds have substantially expanded the territory they control. As noted in that article the area is only 15 miles from Kirkuk, which is now controlled by the Kurds. The Kurds are establishing a new border, so the whole “30 miles from the official border” is misleading, at best.