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Military intervention alone won't stop terrorism in Iraq

Despite the Baghdad government's string of failures in fighting the Islamic State (IS), Iraqi politicians, clergy, media and analysts have been busy trying to assert that Iraq does not need foreign troops on the ground to fight IS.
Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) conduct a patrol looking for militants of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), in a neighbourhood in Ramadi, July 22, 2014. Picture taken July 22, 2014. REUTERS/Osama Al-dulaimi (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS CONFLICT MILITARY) - RTR405S6

The rejection of US, regional or international intervention in Iraq is a subject that has almost become more interesting in Iraq than the fight against the Islamic State (IS). The politicians, the clergy, the media and analysts have been busy during the past few weeks trying to assert that Iraq does not need troops on the ground to fight IS and that Iraqi troops backed by Shiite and Sunni volunteers are capable of defeating the organization.

These assertions would have been normal had it not been for their repeated and almost daily recurrence, which raised questions about the motives behind them. Will Iraq be exposed to pressure to accept the presence of foreign troops on its land? Where do these pressures come from? Are these repeated assurances related to facts on the ground, in terms of operations, regional balances or domestic calculations?

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