Rep. Rohrabacher: US must support Kurds, directly arm Peshmerga

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) – In an interview with Kurdistan 24, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R, California) explained why he felt strongly that the US must support the Kurds.

“I am totally dismayed that there’s been any talk whatsoever about reducing our arms support for the Kurdish people, who are fighting against evil forces in the Middle East,” he said.

Rohrabacher described the Kurds as “a stalwart in the fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism, or, let’s say, radical terrorists who are using Islam.”

“The Kurds need to be recognized for this,” he affirmed, as he cautioned against reports that the White House would be reducing its military support.

“It would be ingratitude at the highest level if we do that,” Rohrabacher stated.

“I am going to work with members of Congress to do everything we can,” so the Kurds will “continue to have our support.”

Rohrabacher focused on Iran’s malevolent role in the region and its aggression toward the Kurds.

The “evil force” in the Middle East, “especially includes the Iranian-backed Iraqi militias and military.”

“Iraq now no longer exists in reality,” the Congressman affirmed. “The people who are claiming to be Iraqi soldiers are really nothing more than the stooges of the Iranian mullah regime.”

Rohrabacher is strongly at odds with the Trump administration, which sees Iraq under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as a US ally in the mission of containing Iran.

Rohrabacher, however, sees the Kurds as a US ally, and not Baghdad.

“The United States should make sure that we do everything we can to pay back this debt of gratitude that all Americans should have for the courage of the Peshmerga in combatting an evil that threatens us in the United States and the rest of the world.”

The Congressman also affirmed that “the Peshmerga should be armed directly.”

Rohrabacher was first elected to Congress in 1988, following his service as a Special Assistant to the President in the Ronald Reagan White House.

He has long chaired the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats. In that capacity, he led a Congressional investigation into the UN’s notoriously corrupt “Oil For Food” program, after the toppling of Iraq’s Ba’athist regime.

On Thursday, Rohrabacher issued an additional statement, following US President Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which, according to Ankara, Trump said he would end arms supplies to Kurdish forces in Syria.

“The United States has already backed away from Kurds in Iraq, who are fighting Iranian-backed militias,” Rohrabacher protested.

“Our policy should be to support friends, not betray them.”

“We are placating Erdogan, who is taking Turkey down the road to Islamic dictatorship, inevitably putting it in the ranks of the terrorists,” Rohrabacher stated.

“The Kurds have been a major force against radical Islamic terrorism. It is unconscionable to abandon them,” he affirmed.

“This will be sending exactly the wrong message.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany