Gen. John Allen hails Kurdish role in fighting ISIS
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – Speaking at the Brookings Institution, which he now heads, Gen. John Allen (US Marine Corps, Retired), had high praise for the part played by the Peshmerga and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the fight against the Islamic State.
Allen was Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS from 2014 to 2015, after which he joined the Brookings Institution, becoming its president in 2017.
A decade earlier, Allen fought in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF.) From 2006 to 2008, he served as deputy commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force and commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.
The Marines were based in Anbar Province, and they nurtured the revolt against Al Qaida in Iraq (AQI) that began in Anbar in late 2005 among the Sunni Arabs. That movement, known as the Awakening (Sahwa, in Arabic), then spread to other areas of Iraq, after President George W. Bush concluded in 2007 that defeat there was unacceptable and instituted “the surge.”
Speaking at Brookings on Tuesday, in a seminar marking the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Global Coalition against ISIS, Gen. Allen hailed the Kurdish role in that fight.
“We would not have had a lot of the options in northern Iraq that we ultimately were able to take advantage of, if it hadn’t been for the KRG,” Allen told the Brookings audience, “and the leadership within the KRG and the courage of the Peshmerga.”
“That gave us options,” he continued,” not just in the context of northern Iraq, but it gave us options with respect to Syria” as well.
“So we not only treasure our relationship with Baghdad, but we treasure our relationship with Erbil, as well,” he said.
Speaking after the event to Kurdistan 24, Allen stressed how important it was for the US to remain engaged in Iraq.