The United States Should Arm the Kurds

Counter Arguments and RebuttalsPro continuously states that Assad has no relevancy in this argument. That statement is nearly ridiculous, when Assad and the Kurds have been long time rivals, and are currently fighting each other and ISIS. My statement of the US intent to topple Assad means that the US was previously funding Kurds to topple Assad and still are now [1] [2]. If you don't know, ISIS has territory as far in as Raqqa, Syria, and are on the edge of Syrian Kurdistan's borders. If you need a geographical map to help, here it is. It is a reason not to arm the Kurds because you could have an actual state with an actual military being able to destroy ISIS instead of using rag-tag insurgencies. I won't be repeating my arguments about Assad, they're in the last 2 rounds, not refuted. My opponent should have read my source more carefully, since now I have to actually quote the article stating a unification resistance. "While the Iraqi Kurds have, since around 2001, made efforts to "unify" the Peshmerga, the Peshmerga forces—like the corollary party intelligence services—are unified more on paper than in reality. Take, for example, recent fighting: It was the PUK Peshmerga that seized Kirkuk [From Iraq]" [3]. "During the unification. .. as the KDP once fought the PUK over resources, much of the antagonism fed to the West about the YPG today traces back to either Turkey or the KDP. " (Refer to Source 3)It is not a bare assertion. They resisted unification by fighting Iraq and their own Kurdish rivals. As for your source stating that it resolves all obstacles I had listed, it does not. The writers, Aliza Marcus [4] and Andrew Apostolou [5] (The writers of the source you were referring to), are international journalists. Not economists or political analysts, meaning they spent their work writing about what happened in the field. In your own words, they were making "bare assertions". Not to mention, they didn't actually talk about socio-political factors in Kurdistan, they simply listed the problems [6]. My opponent continues with point C, saying that Iraq doesn't want to unify Kurds in worry of a civil war. If my source did not support my claim (Which I doubt), I'll provide another one as there are plenty to go around [7]. Peshmerga has already been given minimal funding by the United States, mostly because Iraq had put a limit considering that Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomous area (Which is what I meant by suppressed, they aren't a free nation) [8]. This rebuttal disproves the weak labels of Pro stating that my argument was a bare assertion. For the voters, I seriously recommend you look at my sources yourselves, they list what I state. Pro continues his argument stating that I provided no evidence of the suppression of Kurdistan, which is true. I didn't provide it because I felt it was a fundamental of this argument, so I've provided two here (Refer to Source 8) [9]. The next rebuttal of my opponent states the numbers of the Kurdish rebels. The KDP and PUK aren't as strong as you stated in the previous round, nor do they compose 70% of Kurdish fighting forces [10] [11] [12]. As for the YPG, an extreme left wing organization, and a known instrument of war crimes and humanitarian violations [13], I will not refute their numbers, they are powerful, but they are also questionable. In the last argument of Pro, he states that I did not provide sources stating that the Syrian Army is able to defeat ISIS. That is a fallacious statement, I did provide sources numbering the power of the Syrian military [14], the 36th strongest nation on Earth, and the statistics of ISIS military strength, only a near 1/3 of the strength of the Syrian military [15]. While, if united, the Kurdish powers would only compose a near equivalent of the power of ISIS (Refer to Source 9 and 12). If my opponent calls my method an unwarranted claim, I could do the same to his simply because his method hasn't (successfully) happened. As for my opponent calling Assad a more dangerous power than ISIS, than my opponent already has the qualities of the Kurdish forces he is vouching for as they defect to ISIS by the hundreds [16]. There is no need to arm Syria, because they are already equipped, secular, functioning, and powerful. Far more than the Kurds would ever be and ISIS will ever reach. I thank my opponent for this great debate, and I appreciate the chance of being able to debate with one of the most prominent figures here in DDO! Sources[1] . http://www.bbc.com...[2] . https://en.wikipedia.org...(2013%E2%80%93present)[3] . http://kurdishquestion.com...[4] . http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org...[5] . https://www.linkedin.com...[6] . http://www.nytimes.com...[7] . http://jcpa.org...[8] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[9] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[10] . http://www.globalsecurity.org...[11] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[12] . http://www.globalsecurity.org...[13] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[14] . http://www.globalfirepower.com...[15] . https://en.wikipedia.org...[16] . http://www.globalresearch.ca...