They seem to value democracy, rights of woman, religious freedom etc. But since Turkey don't want to be involved. I just wonder if any other will help them. I really hope they will get aid by someone willing to support them. They are really brave fighting against this extreme group called ISIL.
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Will Obama or any allied help the kurds soon??
- Thread starter Rotcha
- Start date
esmith
Veteran Member
It appears that it may be to late to help many of the Kurdish people, especially those in Kobani. Air attacks are now about useless since the ISIS/ISIL forces have entered the town. As far as Turkey helping the Kurdish people I wouldn't hold my breath. The relationship between the Kurdish people and Turkey is somewhat contentious. Air attacks, as being used now, will not be a deterrent to the forces of ISIS. Basically, what air attacks are doing now used to be called "tank plinking" but now substitute "technicals" for tanks.
Yerda
Veteran Member
Yerda
Veteran Member
From what I've read the Kurds appear to value these things more than most Westerners.
Out of curiosity, what do we know about the Kurds?
Edited to add: I personally know that they have a considerably different culture from that of the States they exist in (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria), yet Kurdistan has not had political autonomy for a long time. Quite often the Kurds have been literally at war with their own supposed compatriots, a situation which has often enough been of interest to the USA as a way of keeping both Iran and Iraq somewhat in check without risking US soldiers and war funds.
It probably helps that much of Iraq's oil is actually in Kurdish territory.
According to Wikipedia, they are not particularly homogeneous in the ethnic sense and they number about 30 million people.
But the idea that they are somehow democracy lovers that just happened to be surrounded by unstable, hostile or barbaric tribes is more than a bit premature to me. From an anthropological perspective it sounds unlikely at best; cultures don't simply contrast like that without significant bleeding-through of ideas and values.
It is certainly possible that the Kurdish People are very contrasting with their own cultural origin, and they are inherently more reliable, more peaceful or more virtuous than their neighbors - heck, the legendary Saladin was one of them - but that was a long time ago, and in recent decades there has a lot of warfare involving them. I fear the evidence that it is somehow a good idea to give them weapons outright has simply not been presented so far.
Edited to add: I personally know that they have a considerably different culture from that of the States they exist in (Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria), yet Kurdistan has not had political autonomy for a long time. Quite often the Kurds have been literally at war with their own supposed compatriots, a situation which has often enough been of interest to the USA as a way of keeping both Iran and Iraq somewhat in check without risking US soldiers and war funds.
It probably helps that much of Iraq's oil is actually in Kurdish territory.
According to Wikipedia, they are not particularly homogeneous in the ethnic sense and they number about 30 million people.
But the idea that they are somehow democracy lovers that just happened to be surrounded by unstable, hostile or barbaric tribes is more than a bit premature to me. From an anthropological perspective it sounds unlikely at best; cultures don't simply contrast like that without significant bleeding-through of ideas and values.
It is certainly possible that the Kurdish People are very contrasting with their own cultural origin, and they are inherently more reliable, more peaceful or more virtuous than their neighbors - heck, the legendary Saladin was one of them - but that was a long time ago, and in recent decades there has a lot of warfare involving them. I fear the evidence that it is somehow a good idea to give them weapons outright has simply not been presented so far.
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esmith
Veteran Member
Well as the article states these weapons and supplies were not supplied by the US, they came from the Kurdish army in Iraq. All the US was in this case was a middle man; just providing the transportation.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
IMO, we simply must help the Kurds as they have been reliable allies, and I'm pleased that we did do the drops to them and also hit the ISIS militia. One big fear is that if ISIS was able to take over Kurdistan that there would likely be genocide taking place.
Shadow Wolf
Certified People sTabber
At least Turkey is letting people through to help fight against ISIS in Kobane. With ISIS getting that close to their borders, Turkey really needs to step in and drive them back for their own sake. I can't think of any good reason to not put past and current hostiles and tensions aside and help secure their own border.
BBC News - Islamic State: Turkey to let Iraq Kurds join Kobane fight
ISIS is also apparently taking heavy losses against a city that was predicted to quickly fall.
ISIS fighters taking heavy losses in battle for Kobane | Daily Mail Online
Hopefully the city won't fall. There is no doubt that everyone trapped in the city will be butchered should it fall to ISIS.
BBC News - Islamic State: Turkey to let Iraq Kurds join Kobane fight
ISIS is also apparently taking heavy losses against a city that was predicted to quickly fall.
ISIS fighters taking heavy losses in battle for Kobane | Daily Mail Online
Hopefully the city won't fall. There is no doubt that everyone trapped in the city will be butchered should it fall to ISIS.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
The irony is that Turkey earlier wasn't doing a thing to keep militants from crossing their border to join up with ISIS, plus they weren't allowing us to use their air base near the border there even though we both belong to NATO. Some "allies" they are.
Yerda
Veteran Member
They are human.
That is not unreasonable.LuisDantas said:
Edit: Of course, without weapons large numbers of them will be murdered. And ISIS will grow.
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For all I truly know, the very same thing will happen (with more weapons at the hands of ISIS) with weapons, though.
The Middle East situations deserve better efforts than that.
Yerda
Veteran Member
I cannot disagree in the least. I still prefer armed Kurds fighting ISIS to a massacre of unarmed. For what it is worth, the Kurds I have spoken to also prefer this.