Imagine you are the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. A crisis has broken out on the other side of the globe, and your country is one of the few with the power to help stop it. Some say that it is your duty to take action, but others think that getting involved will come at too great a cost to your own country. How would you react? U.S. President Barack Obama is facing this exact dilemma in the form of a sudden humanitarian crisis in Iraq. In 2011, the U.S. removed its last combat troops from the country after a nine-year war that toppled its oppressive government, and now Iraq’s new democratic government is facing its biggest challenge yet. In recent months a terrorist organization, the Islamic State (IS, also formerly known as ISIS or ISIL), has forged a path of destruction across Iraq. IS comes from one of Islam’s two largest groups, Sunnis, but the group subscribes to an almost universally condemned interpretation of Sunni Islam. It aims to establish a nation governed by its extreme, harsh interpretation of Islamic law, and is committing cruel atrocities against the other large Muslim sect, the Shia, as well as Iraqi Christians and other small religious and ethnic groups. IS’s threat has now reached the doorstep of a major ethnic group, the Kurds, and particularly a Kurdish religious group, the Yazidis. Kurds and Kurdish Yazidis have traditionally retained some security and independence from the rest of Iraq, but IS has pushed toward their territory. Now thousands of Kurdish Yazidis face a choice between almost certain death as IS invades their towns, or refuge on a mountain, Mt. Sinjar, with scarce food and water, medicine, and shelter. The Iraqi military has struggled to rescue civilians now trapped on the mountain with risky helicopter flights, but the U.S. has helped by conducting airstrikes to halt approaching IS militants and airdrops to deliver critical supplies to Mt. Sinjar. A small number of U.S. military Special Forces went to Mt. Sinjar on August 13th to assess the humanitarian situation. Based on their report, President Obama announced that humanitarian airdrops would end while military strikes continue, but he insisted that military involvement would not escalate beyond airstrikes and U.S. ground troops would not be put at risk. At this point, however, hundreds of civilians are dead at the hands of IS, thousands are still displaced, and IS remains a dangerous military force pushing into Kurdish territory. Many say that the U.S. should remain involved, continuing assistance to innocent civilians, including Kurdish Yazidis, and to Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces fighting IS. On the other hand, many say that the U.S. should not be militarily involved in Iraq again, and that American resources, and possibly even lives, should not be risked for the people of another country. What do you think? Should the U.S. be engaged in Iraq, or not?