ISIS does not have the strength to take Bagdad right now. However, a year from now? Who knows. In the meantime, they could make life in Bagdad completely insane with day after day of foreign religious fanatics willing to die for Allah blowing themselves up, killing hundreds if not thousands of people all while ISIS prepares to mount the final push from fallujah and ramadi. If Bagdad were to ever fall, it would be over, except for the mop up operations. I don’t know if that’s possible, but they could certainly paralyze the whole country.
So?
Why is this our problem? Bagdad had been sacked and re-sacked dozens of times over centuries. Sunni, Shia, other sects ... who ever came along with enough brute force.
This is the history of the region. Why should it all of a sudden be different now?
20,000 ISIS Fanatics vs 100,000 Iraqi Security Forces?
I pick ISIS.