With U.S. air strikes coming to their aid, the battle between the two sides is likely to resolve into one of the bloodiest man-to-man battles since the days of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great.
Knocking out artillery batteries stolen from Iraq by ISIS will leave no other option to Imam al-Baghdadi, the so-far successful leader of the Fifth Caliphate. He will have to rally wave after wave of human pawns to assault the forces sent out from Baghdad, and there will be little the United States can do beyond strikes against ISIS artillery to help.
But, by the grace of God, I believe, ISIS will have the Kurds at their back, creating the potential for a two-front conflict that I believe ISIS cannot long sustain. That is one good, sound strategic reason to aid the Kurds now; there is no guarantee that they will once again come to "our" aid in fighting ISIS, but they will be well aware that they are the next dinner on the lion's plate should Baghdad fall to the ISIS Sunnis.
Already, the Kurds and ISIS have clashed in earnest, and in doing so, the Kurds have suffered heavy losses of men, if not of territory. The Kurds still control the "oil-rich" city of Kirkuk, which has been home to a large Kurdish population since the 14th Century.
Preserving Kurdish control of Kirkuk should be one of the major strategic goals of any further U.S. involvement in Iraq, and consolidation of the three Kurd-majority states of northern Iraq, now semi-autonomous (despite a 1970 Iraqi plan that would have given it full autonomy), into a fully independent nation would not only well serve vital U.S. strategic interests but redeem our long presence in Iraq by leaving behind us there a nation that is supportive of and actually implements some of our democratic ideals.
Significantly, President Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been the first Middle East leader to speak out in favor of such a resolution. Although critics say his declaration of support for the Kurds is self-serving, we welcome it warmly at face value.
As much as we want to be rid of the Iraq war and the problems that come with it, creating a free and independent Kurdistan by a relatively painless effort on its behalf will give President Obama and our fruitless U.S. Congress a claim to greatness, and even redeem the vast wealth of human and financial resources Iraq has consumed..
Few Presidents can claim they have presided over and ensured the birth of a new democratic nation; the establishment of a free Kurdistan will be an achievement that endures and illumines America's otherwise sad history in the Middle East.
Joe Shea, is a former foreign correspondent for the Village Voice in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India
Copyright 2014 Joe Shea The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.
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