I feel like I'm qualified to answer this. We have an obligation to help, in my opinion, for a few reasons. The first reason being that too many Americans died fighting for Iraq's security for us to sit back and let it implode. Secondly, all that time and money will be going down the drain. Now, we messed up by leaving a country without adequate security and without competent security forces to handle such a threat--but that's only partly our fault. Yes, Obama and his team probably did not negoiate as hard as they should have for a new SOFA agreement; however, the blame is also on Maliki here. Why? He has essentially acted as a puppet of Iran after we announced the withdrawal. It is his own doing as to why we did not leave a residual force; Iran, being that he essentially owed them, did not want American troops left in Iraq. Being the stooge he is, he complied. Getting back on track here, we cannot let ISIS control this much territory. Much like other al-Qaeda groups (while ISIS is no longer, as of the time of this post, a branch of al-Qaeda, they are still pursuing AQ'S goals and ideology set forth by UBL), their focus is purely local right now. Like we've seen with other branches, they will eventually begin to target the west. While most resources are directed for local needs, some are diverted for attacking the far enemy. With ISIS controlling almost a third of Iraq, this does not bode well for the region nor for the West. It's essentially the same logic for France's intervention in Mali after AQIM took over a portion the size of Texas. We simply cannot let this dangerous of a terrorist organization to control this much ground--it provides ample amount of protection and opportunities to conduct training, to finance terrorist attacks, to plot them, etc. If we are to do something about this, however, it needs to be on conditions. Conditions that Maliki will make serious steps to improving rights for both Sunni's and Kurds. Without that, he is not getting direct military intervention. At least, if I were in charge he wouldn't. We should still offer him limited intelligence, logisitical and technological support, with the "full" package to be unlocked in the event he makes the aforementioned improvements. For once, I actually agree with Obama on a decision in foreign policy. Iraq needs to set forth a political plan of reintegrating Sunni's and Kurds into everyday Iraqi politics, without that he will be hard-pressed to find the support from us that he wants. http://thelineofsteel.weebly.com/the-line-of-steel/the-islamic-states-rampage-in-iraq My blog post on this.