Since neither the U.S. nor any of the coalition members are willing to commit ground forces in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the only boots on the ground are being worn by the Kurds, and a large portion of their army is made up of women!

With ISIS just outside of Baghdad, and moving north to the Kurdish region, the Kurds are fighting to defend their homeland. If they don't receive the weapons to halt the ISIS forces, many expect the brutal militants to wage a massive genocide campaign.For a decade, the Kurds have appealed for U.S. equipment but it was never delivered. The U.S. had been sending some supplies through the Iraqi Army but that proved to be a big mistake.After the Iraqi army ran from the battlefield in June, ISIS picked up a great deal of state-of-the-art American equipment. Finally, it was reported earlier this week that the U.S. has begun to air drop weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to help the Kurds.News of U.S. aid was not expected to sit well with the Turkish government, which opposes any moves that help Kurdish forces. Turkey views the main Kurdish group in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurd group known as the PKK, which has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey. On Monday, however, Turkey's top diplomat made a surprising announcement that his country is helping Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria to "give support" to fellow Kurds defending the border town of Kobani.Women make up about one-third of the Kurd fighting force in neighboring Turkey and Iraq and many are battling the ISIS forces on the front lines. The Kurdish women know how to fight. An all-female peshmerga force has been trained by SWAT teams and with the special forces for action on the front lines against ISIS.Col. Ahmed Rashid, battalion commander, said they are motivated fighters because they want to defend other women in areas of conflict.Along with their physical presence, the Kurdish woman provide a psychological advantage against ISIS militants who believe that under Jihadist law, if they are killed by a woman they will not go to heaven but be sent to hell.In an interview last month, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce of California explained that Jihadists fear that being killed by women would deny them paradise in the afterlife, which also includes their rights to have 72 virgins.Absent of putting in ground forces, the U.S. needs to continue supplying the Kurds who have a democracy with pro-American ideals.Economically self-sufficient with considerable oil wealth, they believe in equal rights for women and are the only ones in the region willing to accept Christian, Sunni and religious minority refugees.To carry out the U.S. plan to "degrade and defeat ISIS" without committing ground troops, our only hope is through the Kurds, the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East and the only ones willing so far to stand up to ISIS.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com