8February 2022Turkey NegSome ofthesesameKurdish groups arealsoWashington’s best allies in its fight against Islamic Stateand Al Qaeda in Syria and Iraq.ISIS has already had a devastating impactAlastairJamieson, 1-19-2016, "ISIS Death Toll: 18,800 Civilians Killed in Iraq in 2 Years: U.N.," NBC News,LONDON —At least 18,802 civilians have been killed in Iraq inISIS-linkedviolence in under two years, a United Nations report said Tuesday —with millions of others forced from their homes and thousands moreheld as slaves.“The violence suffered by civilians in Iraq remains staggering,” said thereport by the Office of the United Nations High Comissioner for Human Rights [PDF link here].ISIS continues to commit “systematic and widespread violence and abuses of internationalhuman rights law and humanitarian law,” it said, adding that some of those act amount “crimesagainst humanity, and possibly genocide.”RebuttalFT: Russia ProvokedPutin’s tactics are obvious– he’s notreallythreatenedby NATO. In fact, it’s backwards– he’s been most aggressivewhen NATO has beenweakestAlanDowd 20, senior fellow with the Sagamore Institute, where he leads the Center for America’sPurpose, “NATO is Finally Waking Up, Trying to Deter Russia”,To be sure,Putin’s military is a shell of the Red Army.But it pays to recall thathis military buildupandoutright aggressionoccurredas NATO members slashed military spending,deemphasizedtheirall-for-onecollective defense commitments,and“hugged the bear,”in the words of former NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove.Putin,likehistory’sotherrevisionistautocrats,tries tojustifyhis actions bycontriving external causesandclaiming the high road of self-defense.He cites NATO’seastwardexpansion to explainRussia’s bellicose
