KURDISH INDEPENDENCE: ONE DAY, BUT NOT NOW. “This is not the right moment for independence. There are two main reasons. First, as the IS onslaught demonstrates, the threat from this insurgency is real and encompasses not just Iraq but also Syria. IS has proven itself to be cunning and quite adept at tactics, if not strategy. Defeating it will take time, resources and a commitment to fighting. For a population that has not known much else but violence and uncertainty, this is a tough choice. The Kurdish peshmerga forces may have experience, but they are woefully underfunded and underequipped. Most importantly, they over-extended, having sent their forces to areas abandoned by the Iraqi army. It is telling that some of the accounts of the fighting between IS and the Kurds mention that the Kurdish forces ran out of ammunition.”

Maybe if they’d convinced Obama that they were Syrian “moderates,” or maybe Mexican drug lords, they’d be better armed.