„This justifies all the reasons why the Pentagon should help beef up the Peshmerga forces by providing such sophisticated arms,“ Karwan Zebari, the Kurdish government spokesman in the United States, told Reuters.

With high-powered lobbying firms and a savvy media campaign in Washington, the Kurds are pressing hard for U.S. money and guns to meet short-term needs and support for their longer-term goal of a sovereign state in the mountains of northern Iraq.