Lobbying 2015: Iraq turns to US to keep country together
Iraq launched a massive lobbying push two years ago to convince the US not to let the country fall apart. With the Islamic State finally on the defensive, are Kurdish dreams of independence the next target?
US President Barack Obama wanted to leave Iraq far, far behind.
Instead, the United States may be the country’s last chance to stay in one piece.
After initial reluctance to get involved in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), the White House jumped into the fight last summer after the group beheaded two Americans and threatened the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since then, the United States has gradually increased its military and financial commitment to Baghdad while insisting that the Iraqis themselves must do the fighting.
In September, the United States began to pull together an international coalition to combat the Islamist group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria. Obama ramped up the effort in November when he asked Congress for $5.6 billion to defeat the terrorist group — including $1.6 billion for a train-and-equip mission in Iraq.
