Posted on 10/02/2014 1:45:16 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
(Reuters) - The changing fortunes of war in northern Iraq are recorded in layers of graffiti daubed on the walls of villages overrun by Islamic State militants this summer, but since re-appropriated by Kurdish peshmerga forces.
"Bravo peshmerga," read the freshest markings, painted over older inscriptions - some of them already scribbled out - that proclaim "property of the Islamic State".
Village by village, Kurdish forces have regained around half the territory they gave up in August when IS militants tore through their defenses in the northwest, prompting September's airstrikes by the United States - their first since 2011.
The Kurds scored a particularly important victory recently, driving Islamic State fighters from the strategic Rabia border crossing and severing their main artery from Mosul to Syria, which had been used to re-supply fighters on both sides.
Though their brethren in Syria have lost control of hundreds of villages to IS fighters, prompting thousands of refugees to flee to Turkey, the Kurds in Iraq now feel as though the tide has turned in their favour.
But to secure the rest of what they have lost they will now have to overcome numerous challenges ranging from a lack of heavy weaponry and U.S. air support in eastern areas close to Iran's border, to hostile residents rejecting their claim in other areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
Looks like Obama has put the kabosh on helping the Kurds except for maybe a photo-op or two. This clown needs to be impeached.
I am thinking a modified and modernized P-38 Lightning equipped with a STOL configuration, smaller more powerful tuboprop engines, dual counter rotating propellers, and modern avionics would be just the ticket for a ground attack aircraft. Cheap to build and easier to maintain than modern jets.
Mount it with twin, M242 Bushmaster chain gun as it’s main armament, add a M134 minigun as a secondary weapon and lots of ammo for both.
Put about 4 dozen of these aircraft in the hands of the Kurds, train their pilots, maintenance crews and their forward air controllers and I will bet that they would be devastating against the ISIS troops.
RE: If I were the Kurds, I wouldn’t trust the Americans for a minute. We have left them high-and-dry on more than one occasion.
Ahhh yes... remember Papa Bush, who encouraged them to rise up after Saddam Hussein was driven out of Kuwait?
He abandoned them and allowed Saddam to gas 5,000 of them to death [One of the instances of Saddam’s use of WMD’s, which we mysteriuosly could not find after he was deposed]
But then, if they can’t depend on the USA, who can they turn to?
The only people who care about the Kurds are the Kurds. Disgusting how they’ve been let down so often.
That’s what I was thinking of, too.
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