Arms for Kurdish peshmerga to affect military balance

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.de/arms-for-kurdish-peshmerga-to-affect-military-balance/a-17853077

Kurdish peshmerga militia are receiving modern weaponry to do battle with the extremist group "Islamic State." But the military aid is stirring fears of Kurds' aspirations for independence.

Arms for Kurdish peshmerga to affect military balance

These days, much hope rests on the shoulders of Iraq's Kurdish militia, the peshmerga. The military units of the Kurdish regional authorities are trying to stop the radical Sunni group "Islamic State" (IS, formerly ISIS) from taking over any more territory. They are also tasked with bringing Christians, Yazidis and others fleeing IS terrorists to safety. But the men and women peshmerga fighters are not well equipped for battle.

The United States and France plan to ship them modern weaponry. Meanwhile, Deputy Chancellor and head of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel has rejected any German participation in arming the Kurds for now, but has not completely ruled out future participation. The idea of supplying the peshmerga with modern weapons has raised many questions, for example, about how it could affect the sensitive military balance in the region.

The Kurdish term "peshmerga" means "those who face death." It is applied mainly to fighters in Iran and Iraq, but not members of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) in Turkey. Two organizations with armed units have emerged since 1975: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said Erfurt-based professor and Iraq expert Ferhad Seyder.

"After 1991, there were attempts to fuse the two groups, but party interests and sheer egoism have led to the continued existence of two peshmerga units today,” Seyder told DW.

[bemildred]

1. What military balance?

Chaos and war are not balance, they are the lack of it. What we see in the area is a power vacuum, and the question of whom is to fill it in dispute, and the USA not happy with some of the prospects.