Al Qaeda Resurgence?

1/2/14

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/02/civilian-death-toll-in-iraq-highest-in-years-fueling-concern-about-al-qaeda/

2013 has ended and looking back at the violence in Iraq during the past year there is major concern that Al Qaeda is making a violent resurgence after some steady and lower key years. According to the UN 7,818 civilians were killed throughout 2013. There is concern that the US hard fought gains to get more peace for Iraqi civilians is now going to waste. Troops were pulled out in 2011 and the levels of violence stayed lower for a while. Some are urging the United States to get involved again but there is not a lot of desire for us to go back there. Tensions between the Sunnis and Shiites (different branches of the Islam religion) have also risen over the past year. This has created contention between different government officials.

It is a little worrisome that violence seems to growing in Iraq again. It just shows that how hard you try to keep terrorism and violence down it is impossible to completely stop it. I did read that the US is still helping Iraq in different ways than supplying troops. They continue to discuss various things with officials of Iraq and supplying arms to the government. I don't think going back into Iraq would accomplish anything. We don't have an appetite or good reason to go in so I don't think we should really even consider it at this point. We will have to watch and see what Al Qaeda continues to do during 2014.