America's belated battle against the Islamic Caliphate

No one can claim today that the rising power of radical Sunni groups came as a surprise to them. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki had warned repeatedly of Al-Qaida's threat to the stability and territorial integrity of Iraq and requested to acquire modern weapons to fight the extremists from the US. Back in 2012 most of his requests were denied by the Pentagon under the pretense that Al-Maliki’s regime is “weak, unreliable and undemocratic.” Al-Maliki then turned to Russia, signing a five-billion dollar weapons deal, most of it yet to be fulfilled.

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