At time of writing the Canadian government has voted to undertake the
combat missions against Da'esh which we were at least partially doing already.
Where this goes I don't know, but past practice from Afghanistan coupled with
our current fiscal restraint suggests that this will remain at the level of
low-rate airstrikes against painfully "safe" targets and some
undisclosed Special Ops activity. Better than nothing, but unlikely to make a
difference in the grand scheme.
Still, it's important to do something and we are at least doing that.
What I draw more encouragement from is stories like this:
Dillon Hillier was working construction in Alberta when ISIS gunmen began their brutal push into Kurdish territory. A veteran of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, he decided he couldn’t just watch it happen.
Last weekend, the 26-year-old infantryman left Calgary and flew to northeastern Iraq to help Kurdish fighters fend off the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. “I just felt it was the right thing to do since they’re facing some pretty tough times,” he said in an interview.
Unlike the radicalized youths who have flocked to Syria and Iraq, Mr. Hillier is a military veteran and he is siding with ISIS’s most formidable enemy, the Peshmerga. Mr. Hillier said he expected to be joined over the coming weeks by volunteers from Canada, the United States and Sweden.
To help Canadians eager to fight ISIS, an Ottawa military veteran recently formed the 1st North American Expeditionary Force. Ian Bradbury said former Canadian Forces members had launched the non-profit group to provide financial and logistical support to friends who felt compelled to volunteer.
The Kurds are the only group over there who both have ability to resist
Da'esh (and equivalents) and a tolerant and reasonably progressive mindset as a
culture. In short, they are worth supporting against the alternatives, and not
merely as the lesser of available evils. They also appreciate the help, a rare
trait in that part of the world.
Experience has shown that supporting most Arab groups is a waste of time
as they're never happy whatever you do or don't do. Largely anecdotal, but we don't need peer-reviewed
studies to tell us that if Iraq was a tar baby Syria would be the same.
It's not just the Arabs of course, there are a lot of other groups just
as opportunistic (Afghans leap to mind) but we have proven Nation-Building
to be a failed model, expensive in blood and treasure. The Kurds have
built their own; it's still under construction but they'll do it themselves
with some support from us, as it should be. They have a chance to be the beacon
of "democracy" tolerance and freedom in the Middle East that Bush II
and the NeoCons thought they could fashion post-Saddam Iraq into.
Young men have been trickling in from Western countries to bolster the
Kurds, and by extension the displaced Christians, Yazidis and civilized Sunni
Muslims of northern (nominal) Iraq. I wonder if anyone has thought of
approaching the Saudis to grubstake these guys. Infidels of course, but along with that they are a pretty safe bet to
not boomerang on the House of Saud like the Sunni proxies they usually use. The cost
effectiveness of supporting Western volunteers in Kurdistan could be very high.
Here's the pitch:
End State: Kurdish autonomous area secured and
displaced persons returned to their homes in contiguous areas.
How: Support to Kurdish forces and creation of a
support system for volunteer replacements from other countries.
Salient features:
- Hub
created in theatre with money from Gulf and Western governments
- Ground
organization consisting of recruitment, supply and medical facilities
- Employs
mostly locals
- Tickets
home are part of the supply arrangements
I envision a small staff to liaise with applicants, pick them up from
the airport, issue them with weapons, body armour, ammo, first aid kit and a
local cell phone. From there link them up with the Peshmerga for employment and
hope that the field hospital you've set up doesn't see them for anything worse
than top-up inoculations.
An actual International Brigade is a bad idea, but a dedicated support
organization for the individuals, especially the supply and medical resources,
will encourage more guys to go. As mentioned in the linked National Post
article, ad hoc support groups have been forming in home countries, but things
remain sketchy on the receiving end. With "allies" like this, the Kurds and
the people they're sheltering need all the help we can give them.
