Kurdish Independence Near At Hand
"Members of the Special Operations Task Force will provide their [Iraqi Security Force] partners with advice and assistance in the vicinity of Hawija."
"Canadian Armed Forces personnel are advising its partners on how to best secure their position and prevent effective counter-attacks from Daesh [Islamic State]."
"CAF personnel also advise and assist in the detection, identification and possible prosecution of Daesh targets by our partner, or through coalition resources."
Maj.Alexandre Cadieux, Canadian Armed Forces, Iraq
"This fight is not anywhere near over."
"From a military perspective, we are expecting that there is going to be some kind of insurgency-type scenario that will evolve. And we see some signs of it occurring elsewhere in Iraq."
Brig.Gen.Steven Whalen, Canadian Armed Forces, Iraq
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| Kurds show their support for the upcoming independence referendum at a rally in Erbil. Photograph: Azad Lashkari/Reuters |
Canada's military speaks of involvement with the Iraqi military. That has included various paramilitary groups, and also the Kurdish peshmerga. But it is with the Kurdish fighting forces, the sole fighting groups that have successfully managed to turn the conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the favour of those struggling to remove that abhorrently vicious jihadist group from its geographic base -- that only two years ago was immense, covering large portions of both Iraq and Syria, and threatening to increase its holdings through the momentum of the ISIL growing support from jihadists all over the Islamic world and within Europe -- that momentum has been halted.
Canada's roughly 200 special forces soldiers located in northern Iraq have been supporting the Kurdish peshmerga for the most part in the past several years, although they have also operated with other fighting groups in Iraq. There is a distinct problem inherent in the support of the Iraqi military; their collective skills as a fighting force and their lack of courage leave much to be desired. As for the other fighting groups in Iraq, they are comprised mostly of Shiites, aligned and supported with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iraqi government precipitated in actual fact, the birth of Islamic State, when it spurned the willingness of Iraqi Sunni fighters to join the mostly Shiite-concentrated military. Former Sunni military commanders under Saddam Hussein ended up comprising much of the leadership of Islamic State, and the unwillingness of the Shiite leaders in government to treat their Sunni population with equality led to resentment and finally, connections with ISIL.
Not that sectarian suspicion, hatred and mutual violence doesn't describe business-as-usual in the Middle East.
However, that is not the business-as-usual one recognizes among the Kurds who have supported and sheltered fleeing Iraqi Christians, Yazidis and Sunni Iraqi civilians. And now that the Kurds have finally decided it is long past time to recognize that they have paid their dues to the irreconcilable arrangements historically made on their behalf by European imperialists, and are finally intent on moving ahead to declare Kurdistan fully sovereign, those foreign nations who have depended on their courage and fighting skills to combat ISIL have turned away from Kurdish aspirations.
The combined forces remain together in their common purpose, now surrounding Hawija, the last stronghold of the Islamic State, with its 150,000 people awaiting rescue. It is but nine days to the Kurdish vote for independence. One can only wonder whether Brig.-Gen. Whalen, in speaking of the future of 'insurgency scenarios occurring elsewhere in Iraq', refers to the Kurdish right to self-determination and short-changing it.
Hawija is located in disputed territory, claimed by both the Kurds and the central government in Baghdad. Once the liberation of Hawija becomes fact, another reality will impinge: Kurdish sovereignty, long overdue for a proud and ancient people, too long in thrall to foreign powers and suffering the agonies of persecution and murderous violence in the near past. More than capable of defending themselves now, they must be recognized as a sovereign nation.
Labels: Canada, Independence, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Peshmerga, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, September 16, 2017
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