US Spec Ops Vet: Kurds 'Are Begging for Help'

The Kurds need more firepower and support from the United States — and fast — or Iraq and Syria are doomed to defeat in the fight against the Islamic State, Army Special Operations veteran Jack Murphy says.

"If we do not help the Kurds, if we do not step in militarily, then they are going to lose this war. They're fighting as hard as they can," Murphy said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

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"What it means is that we're not going to have many if any viable partners in that region down the line.

"We're going to have to do something about ISIS eventually. Sooner or later it has to be done. We can't accept this so-called Islamic State in the region."

Murphy — editor-in-chief of military analysis blog SOFREP.com, and author of "The ISIS Solution: How Unconventional Thinking and Special Operations Can Eliminate Radical Islam", written with Brandon Webb and Peter Nealen and published by St. Martin's Press — said U.S. airstrikes are not enough.

"The Kurd fighters and the [Syrian YPG] are locked in a ruthless battle with ISIS right now and both sides are just losing people in droves," he said.

"The very minimal air strikes we're doing over there are not very effective at all and the Kurds are basically begging for help right now."

But the U.S. has been slow on the draw, in part, because of its "poor intelligence" in the region, according to Murphy.

"The only thing we're really blowing up over there is tanks, things that we can visually identify by air … The thing is it's just too little. It's not enough."

He said the struggle to destroy the Islamic State has temporarily put the problems surrounding the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "on the backburner."

"But everybody knows that after ISIS is defeated, then comes Assad," Murphy said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State continues to use "unconventional tactics" in its quest to grow around the world.

"Assassinating people is something that they're doing already over there in Syria and for them to encourage people or their followers to do that in the United States or in Europe, that doesn't surprise me at all," Murphy said.

"This thing spreads like a virus and people who read this stuff and follow this stuff on the internet, they can radicalize themselves in a sense and start buying into the ideology.

"That's very hard to defend against, but I would just say we have to stay vigilant."