Inside America
WASHINGTON D.C. - The word Peshmarga, which translates as “those who face death", has never been so widely-known around the world.
World leaders, experts and journalists have all called the Peshmarga, which is the Kurdish army in Iraq, heroic, fearless, secular,and a defender of civilization and liberty as they have continue to fight the Islamic State (or ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
But even the Peshmarga has suffered some significant defeats by the extremists. In the beginning of the war, ISIS fighters managed to seize certain Kurdish areas, killing hundreds of Yazidi Kurds and kidnapping hundreds of women who continue to be held as sex slaves in ISIS-held territories.
Even though the Peshmarga has been in battle for a relatively short period of time - only six months- it has lost at least 1000 fighters, according to official government figures.
Today, we ask what the Peshmarga need to defeat the Islamic State? The United States and its coalition partners have helped them with air strikes and training, but iwhat additional support might ensure swifter success and less casualties for the Kurds in their fight against ISIS?
Rudaw's Inside America discusses this subject with:
-Sasha Toperich, a Senior international relations fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. A native of Sarajevo, Sasha has served as a senior diplomat for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Anthony D. Sinnott, a retired officer of the U.S. Marine Corps with enormous military and combat experience in Iraq. In 2003, he was sent to Iraq to help re-establish the Iraqi army. Later in Kurdistan, he led the largest local government assistance program in the Kurdistan Region, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Now, Tony is co-founder and Middle East Regional Director of the 1st North American Expeditionary Force, a charitable organization based in Canada & the United States with the mission to provide vital assistance to the Peshmerga as they mount their counter offensive against ISIS.
World leaders, experts and journalists have all called the Peshmarga, which is the Kurdish army in Iraq, heroic, fearless, secular,and a defender of civilization and liberty as they have continue to fight the Islamic State (or ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
But even the Peshmarga has suffered some significant defeats by the extremists. In the beginning of the war, ISIS fighters managed to seize certain Kurdish areas, killing hundreds of Yazidi Kurds and kidnapping hundreds of women who continue to be held as sex slaves in ISIS-held territories.
Even though the Peshmarga has been in battle for a relatively short period of time - only six months- it has lost at least 1000 fighters, according to official government figures.
Today, we ask what the Peshmarga need to defeat the Islamic State? The United States and its coalition partners have helped them with air strikes and training, but iwhat additional support might ensure swifter success and less casualties for the Kurds in their fight against ISIS?
Rudaw's Inside America discusses this subject with:
-Sasha Toperich, a Senior international relations fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. A native of Sarajevo, Sasha has served as a senior diplomat for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Anthony D. Sinnott, a retired officer of the U.S. Marine Corps with enormous military and combat experience in Iraq. In 2003, he was sent to Iraq to help re-establish the Iraqi army. Later in Kurdistan, he led the largest local government assistance program in the Kurdistan Region, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Now, Tony is co-founder and Middle East Regional Director of the 1st North American Expeditionary Force, a charitable organization based in Canada & the United States with the mission to provide vital assistance to the Peshmerga as they mount their counter offensive against ISIS.
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