U.S. Airdrops Weapons, Supplies to Besieged Syrian Kurds

[flamingdem]

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The U.S. dropped weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Syrian Kurds fighting Islamic State extremists in the embattled city of Kobani, U.S. officials said Sunday.

Three U.S. C-130 cargo planes began dropping the weapons and supplies, provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq, on Sunday, the officials said. Over several hours, the U.S. dropped 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition and supplies.

The mission marks a deeper U.S. involvement in the conflict and comes over the objections of U.S. ally Turkey, which strongly opposes arming the Syrian Kurds.

The U.S. has conducted some 135 airstrikes in the area of Kobani, itself a main focus of the Islamic State militant offensive. U.S. military officials said they have killed hundreds of fighters and damaged scores of combat equipment.

Read more: Link http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-considers-options-to-arm-syrian-kurds-despite-turkish-opposition-1413761080to source

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This is an interesting development. The weapons come from the Iraqi Kurds. So they're just, um, carrying them over! Screw Erdogan.

Edit: additional news

Obama called Erdogan Saturday and gave him a choice apparently. Either allow resupply of the Kurds or there will be airdrops. Erdogan wants getting rid of Assad to be the goal and Obama getting rid of Isis.

At least someone appreciates Obama!

[winstars]

1. Since Turkey isn't doing anything anyway, the hell with 'em!

I understand they have been fighting the Kurds for decades and thats why they won't help them. But essentially choosing ISIS over the Kurds is not cool, at all...

Like the OP said, interesting development.

[flamingdem]

2. Erdogan is incredibly stubborn but I suppose

he risks a military coup if he turns too hard against Isis. Also, Isis openly operates recruiting stations in Istanbul and elsewhere, or they did until recently. He let the problem grow and can't seem to admit the mistake.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Erdogan cares about getting rid of Assad. ISIS? Meh, not so much.

And he wants to suck us into a war in Syria to do it. He should mind his own business.

[karynnj]

11. I suspect that he faces sure riots if he continues to not aid the Kurds

I do get his problem. He really does see the faction of Kurds fighting in Kobane as not any better than ISIS. He also thought he could leverage what Turkey could provide into changing the US strategy to be a war against Assad.

There are other US allies for whom that would be the desired goal as well. However, it is completely not what the Obama team wants to do. It seems pretty clear that they want to degrade ISIS and give Iraq a chance to really function with an inclusive government. In Syria it likely is still their view that a political solution is the answer. It might be that with degrading both Al Nusra and ISIS, while "deconflicting" with Syria, that a war weary Syria might agree to a government incorporating the Assad people and Sunnis who are moderates. (Note that a common theme in the last year or so is - unity government)

[flamingdem]

12. Interesting - Turkey stands to lose

On the Assad issue with a unity government, and the Kurds are bound to gain someting in a peace accord. There's nothing in favor of the US attacking Assad - what with our almost allies in iraq (Iran) and Russia .. Who needs to open that can of worms further.

[karynnj]

13. Not mention our great group of "allies" who are Sunni who wanted Assad gone

and anything to replace it!

I suspect that this might be the situation where people finally learn that countries can work together to achieve specific goals - even when they represent everything another member of the coalition detests. It would also be unwise to take for granted the future support of any of these countries. It is interesting reading any comment by Obama, Kerry, Hagel etc on Turkey, where they all go out of their way to praise any little thing Turkey did right and minimize the rest. This has to be that they think will lead to their best behavior (ie a carrot rather than sticks) Turkey clearly have been in negative as far as stopping ISIS goes, but they are in a very key place and we may need them probably more than they need us.

This is not new - it has happened whenever there are alliances. In WWII, the US and Russia were allied even though the view from America was that Stalin was a despicable tyrant (and he was). Still if Russia had not been attacked by Germany, the Germans would have been far more difficult to defeat. Then, of course, after the war, they were the evil empire again.

[bemildred]

15. Nothing quite like a current immediate threat to get people to re-think their old hatreds. nt

[Cha]

4. Let me reiterate! Thank you USA! This is from last month but..

NBC News Pictures ✔ @NBCNewsPictures
Follow
Meet the Kurdish women fighting ISIS in Syria http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/meet-kurdish-women-fighting-isis-syria-n199821 … Photo story by Erin Trieb for @NBCNews
11:30 PM - 9 Sep 2014

mahalo flamingdem

[freshwest]

5. Airdrops instead of genocide. Earlier report said if the city fell, the vulnerable elderly would be

raped and killed with none spared. Someone's mother, grandmother, aunt or uncle, sister or brother.

Obama knows this and so does Erdogan, but their responses are different. Everyone able bodied left during the fighting. One obstructs those trying to save lives and Obama gave Erdogan a chance to do the right thing.

The only boots on the ground are those of the Kurds, and most likely these drops are being handled with American planes under Kurdish direction. They have the most to lose, with many who are not Kurds fleeing to their area for protection.



This will be a generational war, ISIL guaranteed it by kidnapping and raping thousands of women and girls to force them to make the next generation of fighters. This is an ancient strategy from empires of the past. It is not how we see the world. We don't see the world as the Kurds do, but we have this in common, supposedly.

[AngryAmish]

6. This is a joke, a bad one.

The Kurds won this battle. Now, after months of begging for help, we airdrop a few pittances.

Then the US of A claims victory.

No wonder we are considered a bad ally.

[TwilightGardener]

8. You obviously don't understand that there are different

countries and groups involved--Iraqi Kurds are not Syrian Kurds. We have been working closely with Iraqi Kurds for months now, and have arranged weapons for them. We have no presence in Syria, we've never before worked with Syrian Kurds, and in fact the PKK (Kurdish fighters) is on our terror list. For us to help them is a significant policy change, especially because Turkey doesn't want us to, and they're a NATO ally. And the Kurds would have been defeated by now in Kobane without our airstrikes, that is a fact that THEY readily admit.

[karynnj]

14. No one - least of all anyone in Obama's administration disputes what the Kurds have done

However, the Kurds themselves credited the US airstrikes as making it possible and they had said they needed more weapons. The USA is, in fact, STILL saying that this had not been there primary goal. However, Kerry said "It would be irresponsible of us, as well as morally very difficult, to turn your back on a community fighting ISIL, as hard as it is, at this particular moment. "

Please link to ANY US government comment that is a US victory.

[freshwest]

7. Some problems with that link, flaming dem on details. Here's more:

U.S. airdrops weapons, supplies to besieged Syrian Kurds

A senior administration official said the U.S. has emphasized with the Turkish government the urgency with which it views the situation in Kobani. In a telephone call on Saturday, President Barack Obama told Turkish President Reçep Tayyip Erdogan that the U.S. intended to resupply the Kurdish fighters with Iraqi Kurdish arms.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-airdrops-weapons-supplies-to-besieged-syrian-kurds-2014-10-20-01033214

Yes, Obama got them to see reason and stop with the deadly obstruction.

MV shared this from the BBC in his thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014922917

[former9thward]

9. The U.S. is aiding both sides, cool...

U.S. Humanitarian Aid Going to ISIS

Not only are foodstuffs, medical supplies—even clinics—going to ISIS, the distribution networks are paying ISIS ‘taxes’ and putting ISIS people on their payrolls.

GAZIANTEP, Turkey—While U.S. warplanes strike at the militants of the so-called Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq, truckloads of U.S. and Western aid has been flowing into territory controlled by the jihadists, assisting them to build their terror-inspiring “caliphate.”

The aid—mainly food and medical equipment—is meant for Syrians displaced from their hometowns, and for hungry civilians. It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, European donors, and the United Nations. Whether it continues is now the subject of anguished debate among officials in Washington and European. The fear is that stopping aid would hurt innocent civilians and would be used for propaganda purposes by the militants, who would likely blame the West for added hardship.

The Bible says if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink—doing so will “heap burning coals” of shame on his head. But there is no evidence that the militants of the Islamic State, widely known as ISIS or ISIL, feel any sense of disgrace or indignity (and certainly not gratitude) receiving charity from their foes.

Quite the reverse, the aid convoys have to pay off ISIS emirs (leaders) for the convoys to enter the eastern Syrian extremist strongholds of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, providing yet another income stream for ISIS militants, who are funding themselves from oil smuggling, extortion, and the sale of whatever they can loot, including rare antiquities from museums and archaeological sites.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/19/u-s-humanitarian-aid-going-to-isis.html

[flamingdem]

10. What a quagmire

This is why Turkey needs to participate - though its easy to imagine corruption of the authorities. The police are worse than the army with some overtly supporting Isis.