Category Archives: Britain

Britain, European Union, Foreign Affairs, Government, Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Military, Politics, United States

Britain supports the Kurds in northern Iraq…

IRAQ

BRITAIN is set to provide anti-tank weapons, night vision googles, radar and body armour to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq who are battling Islamic State jihadists.

The region’s fighters say they will ask the UK for specific equipment after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said a request for weapons and other equipment would be ‘considered favourably’.

An emergency meeting of EU ministers has condemned the ‘atrocities and abuses’ against religious minorities – such as the Yazidis – and backed the arming of Kurdish forces.

RAF Chinooks sent by Britain to the region are already ferrying weapons supplied by other countries, including France, to Kurds in the city of Irbil. It is here where British and US Special Forces are helping plan an offensive against the IS militants.

Map of Iraq and surrounding areas highlighting IS advances and aid-drop points.

Map of Iraq and surrounding areas highlighting IS advances and aid-drop points.

They are also providing training in the use of the newly supplied weapons, including ‘Milan’ anti-tank missiles and Belgian-made machine guns.

Kurdish fighters would like the UK to provide Javelin anti-tank missiles, mortars, heavy-calibre machine guns and sniper rifles as well as body armour, infrared night vision googles and helmets. They may also be given a portable radar called MSTAR used to locate incoming fire and enemy positions.

Britain had previously said it would only ferry weapons to the Kurds, not supply them. The change of stance could risk drawing the UK back into Iraq’s conflict.

The weapons supply and training are in addition to the RAF Tornados, Hercules transport planes, and other support vehicles and troops already in the region.

The chancellor of the Kurdish region’s security council, Masrour Barzani, said he welcomed the ‘British decision to supply us with the effective weapons that we’ve been asking for’.

The British Government insists that tackling the dire humanitarian situation in Iraq remains the UK’s top priority.

A Downing Street spokesman, said: ‘Ensuring that Kurdish forces are able to counter IS advances is also vital. We have made clear that we will consider any requests from the Iraq or Kurdistan Regional Government favourably.’

No 10 highlighted the plight of the Dahuk region in northern Iraq where 450,000 displaced people are taking shelter – a 50 per cent increase in the area’s population. Farhad Atushi, the governor of Dahuk, said the US and UK are ‘politically and ethically responsible for helping Iraq’.

Mr Atushi has also warned of the threat of ‘genocide’, adding: ‘We have hundreds of thousands (of refugees). We’re going to face an international humanitarian catastrophe because many of those are children who are going to die.’

Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown also welcomed the Government’s decision as he warned that conflicts in Iraq and Syria would result in redrawing Middle Eastern borders.

He said the Kurds could act as a ‘northern bulwark’ against the advancing IS, but added: ‘We are acting as handmaidens to Kurdish independence, with implications for Turkey, which is why you have to have a wider strategy.’

Lord Ashdown continued: ‘It really is time we joined the dots. Instead of having a series of plans for a series of humanitarian catastrophes, we need to have an integrated strategy for containing a widening war.’

Mr Hammond has hailed the announcement that Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki was relinquishing his post, calling on his replacement Haider al-Abadi to form an inclusive government.

It is hoped Mr al-Abadi will be better placed to unite Iraqis in fighting back against IS militants.

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Britain, Government, Iraq, Islamic State, Military, Politics, United States

The British military in Iraq are operating on blurred lines. Parliament needs to discuss the issue…

IRAQ: ISLAMIC STATE

The nature of our operational involvement in Iraq, while welcome, has made significant step changes to what the UK is now doing. This comes without proper parliamentary scrutiny and approval.

The actions of the military have involved dropping essential food parcels and water purification kits to those refugees fleeing the Islamic State militia. However, it has now been tasked with a large-scale rescue mission, but this – undoubtedly – is a major advance to what it was initially tasked to do.

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, is at pains to point out that this is a humanitarian aid relief effort rather than a military mission. But the line between aid and intervention is beginning to blur. The risks to the lives of our aircrews (and troops, should they be necessary on the ground) coming under attack by jihadists is definite and real. ISIS has already hit British military helicopters transiting those stranded on Mount Sinjar to safer ground, and it only seems a matter of time before the shooting down of an aircraft is reported. The British Government, along with its advisers, is jumping in once again without any consideration of what has recently happened in this most volatile of country’. It is quickly becoming apparent it has learned nothing of how military deployments should be sanctioned, and leaves open the Westminster Government to charges of blinkeredness and audacious adventurism.

We would no-doubt expect politicians from across the spectrum to support the rescue mission of those innocents fleeing for the safety of the lives, but Mr Cameron appears to be taking too much for granted as British forces become increasingly involved.

The British public deserve to know exactly what the country is getting into, and our democratically elected politicians must be given the chance to debate and speak up in parliament.

Just days ago, Britain was going no further than providing airdrops of food and water. Now, our involvement is markedly more dangerous. The risk of ‘mission creep’ is ever-present, and now even more of a possibility than before. The ‘rules of engagement’ in this theatre of war are still vague and there remains a risk that circumstances could draw the British military into combat.

David Cameron has so far resisted demands to recall parliament to discuss the crisis. But, as the UK gets further involved, that position is becoming increasingly untenable.

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Britain, Government, Iraq, Islamic State, Middle East, Military, Syria, United States

The intervention by the West in the Islamic State on humanitarian grounds is a right one…

ISLAMIC STATE

Intro: The West must do all it can to prevent the creation of an Islamist semi-state

The Islamic State has become a serious threat, and one that has to be confronted. Its outlook is based on foundations that are medieval, aims which include the destruction of all other faiths and the imposition of Sharia law. The establishment of a caliphate, under which Islamists are ruled, is an overarching objective.

The military successes of the Islamic State have been remarkable. Its campaign has spread across large swathes of Syria and Iraq like a plaque, threatening Baghdad as Iraq’s capital and pushing towards the Kurdish homeland in the north. This advance has caused chaos and anarchy and has driven thousands of religious minorities from their homes under the threat of ‘convert or die’.

The resultant effect is a humanitarian crisis in Iraq, a threat to the stability of a fragile Middle East and a challenge to Western security. Islamist hardliners speak of ‘humiliating’ the United States with a pledge of ‘raising the flag of Allah in the White House’. The ranks of this violent and barbaric army include around 3,000 who are said to hold European passports.

The immediate reason why the outside world has to intervene is to help those displaced people turned into refugees avoid the threat of execution. Many are trapped in the perilous and harsh geography of Iraq and will soon die if aid is not delivered. The worrying comments of General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 has helped to create the conditions for the rise of the Islamic State, suggest we also have a debt to pay.

There remains, too, a much wider task facing the West. Preventing the creation of an Islamist semi-state that both destabilises the nations around it and provides a safe haven for the plotting of terrorist attacks elsewhere is central to the US starting air strikes in Iraq and by halting the advance of the jihadis. Britain is providing logistical support.

This difficult operation has to strike a careful balance. Act too cautiously, and the West may fail to provide sufficient help to those in most need. Get too involved too quickly, and recent history will soon be repeated, with our military being sucked into an unwanted and protracted conflict which could potentially make the West an even greater target for terrorist outrages in the future.

President Barack Obama has indicated that he sees this military operation as being a ‘long-term project’. In military terms, the situation will have to be monitored very closely to decide whether what we are doing is working and, if not, what should be done instead. Mr Obama has said that Iraqis themselves must take a lead.

Where the West’s action should certainly be unstinting and unsparing is in the provision of humanitarian aid. The US and Britain will hopefully do their best to help bring urgently needed supplies – food, water and medical supplies. The Head of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby, is right in his condemnation when he speaks of an ‘evil pattern around the world’ where religious minorities are persecuted for their faith.

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In response to the escalating situation in Iraq, three RAF Tornado fighter jets from RAF Marham in Norfolk have departed for the skies over Iraq. Their mission is to assist in the delivery of humanitarian aid to refugees who have fled in fear of the ISIS insurgents to the slopes of Mount Sinjar.

Technically, this is a humanitarian aid relief effort. No-one should be making the mistake of assuming this operation is in anyway routine. This isn’t an aid drop into a zone struck by a natural disaster, such as happens after an earthquake, but a relief effort that is dealing with the plight of retreating religious minorities. The military are dealing with a situation that is very much man-made.

The ISIS advance has demonstrated their brutality in the most sickening of ways. There are frequent reports of beheadings, crucifixions and the burying of people alive. Amongst those being targeted are the Yazidi, one of the most ancient Christian communities on Earth.

American air strikes against the militia of ISIS, and the UK aid operation that accompanies them, are aimed at saving thousands of lives that are in perilous danger.

Whilst the Islamic State is an organisation that is regarded by the West as the most deadly of destabilising forces in the region, we should also be clear that there are many who will see any US/UK involvement as a provocation. The RAF Tornados are fully armed, and have flown direct to a war zone.

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It will be curious for many Britons, that – given the political sensitivity of UK military involvement in the Middle East – a British deployment has happened without a debate having taken place in the House of Commons. Parliament may be in its summer recess, but military operations in a war zone are exactly the kind of circumstances that could justify a recall. The last time the Prime Minister thought he knew the will of Parliament on a sensitive matter in the Middle East (on support for the rebels in Syria) MPs swiftly disabused him of that notion. If air strikes had gone ahead against President Assad of Syria, the sworn enemy of ISIS, the jihadists could have now also been in control of Damascus. That embarrassing foreign policy reversal was perhaps the most damaging in modern British political history, and has certainly marked one of the lowest points in Mr Cameron’s premiership.

It is apt to point out that this is a tinderbox moment in Iraq, a country still a long way off from being a coherent and sustainable political entity. War zones are, by their very nature and definition, places where the unexpected happens. ‘Mission creep’ will always be an inherent risk.

The questions are real, and not subjective rhetoric. For example, what would happen if British warplanes came under attack? Would they be justified in returning fire? What exactly are the rules of engagement? Any military action – however limited – must have defined objectives, a time limit and a clear endgame.

This demonstrates why it is wise for our political leaders to ensure they have the full backing of the country, through its democratic representatives, before they make a commitment in a conflict situation. The Prime Minister has, so far, not sought that endorsement.

Air strikes against ISIS positions, humanitarian aid drops and even arming the Iraqi Kurds are all options that could be justified if Turkish anxieties can be assuaged. But, as recent history has shown, a full military intervention is bound to have unforeseen and potentially calamitous consequences.

It was ill-conceived foreign intervention that led to the situation we have today in Iraq. The West must avoid making it even worse.

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