With the west’s military heft, and Iraq’s political influence, we can destroy Isis

The grotesque massacres by Islamic State in Tunisia, France, Kuwait and Kobane in Syria confirm deepening fears about its global reach. The victims tell us much about the perpetrators: 30 British sunbathers, Shias at prayer, and 200 Kurdish men, women, and children sleeping in their beds.
 
To defeat Isis we need a mixture of more inclusive Iraqi politics and increased western military commitment. Politically this means an ideological struggle led by Muslims who have no sneaking regard for Isis. At the forefront is the Kurdistan region, a sworn enemy of Isis, with which we now share a 650-mile border. Kurdistan promotes women’s rights and seeks to root its patriotism in a pluralist definition of tolerance. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims but we positively celebrate being home to Shia Muslims, Christians, Yezedis and others. Sadly, our Jewish compatriots left many years ago thanks to a fascistic mindset throughout Iraq’s history, which did us all great damage.
 
Unfortunately, Baghdad is not playing its role, thanks to a centralised approach that treats Kurds and Sunni Arabs as second-class citizens. To offer an alternative to Isis, they should implement Iraq’s democratic and federal constitution. Iraq must be a binational Arab-Kurdish state that is decentralised and democratic. Only by respecting regional autonomy can Baghdad offer a lasting political deal that is attractive to Sunni Arabs who currently believe they are better off with Isis than Baghdad. Only by sticking by such a deal can Baghdad hope to turn the Sunni Arabs against Daesh as they previously rejected al-Qaida during the surge in 2007.
 
Instead, over the last 18 months Baghdad has starved us of resources. Baghdad has only transferred a tiny fraction of the budget payments owed to Kurdistan. We are now three months behind in paying salaries to our civil servants. Our once-booming economy is in a tailspin with increasing poverty and unemployment. Hundreds of investment projects have stalled. Our population has grown by a third because of the influx of 1.6 million Arab Muslim and Christian refugees, and it is massively straining our finances and services.
 
On the military side, western service personnel have protected our homeland and are helping the Iraqi army to recover from its awful defeat last year when it lost one-third of Iraq. Without American and British air power, Kurdistan would be in mortal danger from Isis. However, despite recent Kurdish military victories, neither the Kurds not the Iraqi government can liberate Sunni Arab areas from Isis.
 
What is needed is a greater military effort in partnership with the Kurds, the only force that is able to push back Isis. The first step is for British airstrikes against Isis in its Syrian stronghold. Michael Fallon, the secretary of state for defence, has already suggested rethinking the decision to restrict air operations to Iraq.
 
The second step is to massively increase assistance and supplies of heavy weapons to the Kurdish fighters, the Peshmerga. For too long these highly effective soldiers have been deprived of military training and weapons. They lack heavy weapons and basic kit such as protection vests, night vision goggles and even boots. One peshmerga unit operates a British 25-pounder made in 1941.
 
We have long been deprived by Baghdad of military training and weapons for our peshmerga. Western governments have recently acquired a much better understanding of the past, present and future of the Kurds. We implore them to help us get our Peshmerga on an equal footing and into a fit state to defend ourselves and work with other countries.
 
One excuse for not sufficiently arming the peshmerga is that it prevents Kurdistan from seeking independence. Many also fear antagonising Turkey. The opposite is true. The more Kurds who see that they receive second-class treatment despite huge sacrifices in the war against Daesh, the more they insist that only independence will ultimately protect them. Moreover, we have excellent relations with our largest investor, Turkey, which has provided logistical support and training to the Peshmerga. Likewise we maintain good relations with Iran. We also know that if we one day exercise our right to self-determination it would require an amicable divorce with Baghdad and increased co-operation on security.
 
Michael Gove defines the debate as between those who want to “beat back the crocodiles that come close to the boat” and those who think it is necessary to “drain the swamp”. Air strikes are beating back the crocodiles but their control of one-third of Iraq and half of Syria provides a swamp of vast ungoverned spaces where they can train lone marauders for mass murder in the west, and regenerate a formidable military machine.
 
Finally, we need to accept that air strikes and local forces can only do so much. We are containing Isis, not defeating it. In time, western ground troops may be needed to dislodge Daesh. The legacy of the Iraq war is holding back any such move. As long-time and long-term friends of the British, we know that losing soldiers in Iraq caused great grief. We salute their sacred memory, and thank the British people for liberating Iraq from fascism in 2003 and for the life-saving no-fly zone that shielded the Kurds since 1991. We do not lightly suggest that British and other troops may be needed in Iraq and Syria, but this possibility needs to be faced.
 
Without wider unity to destroy Isis through military and economic means, and doing more to counter their propaganda, there will be many more atrocities. The west has a very willing ally in the Kurds whose prosperity, pluralism and peace are a powerful antidote to Isis’s cult of death, mass murder and genocide.
 
 

 
Kurds in Turkey greet a peshmerga convoy joining militias defending the Syrian border town of Kobane. ‘To defeat Daesh we need a mixture of more inclusive Iraqi politics and increased western military commitment.’ Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
 
 
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