President Barack Obama made his official decision Sept. 10 to send troops into Iraq. Obama announced that 475 ground soldiers would be sent into Iraq and that there are more air strikes planned to hit Iraq and Syria. The reason that the United States has decided to re-involve American troops in Iraq is because of the problems the Middle East is facing with the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Islamic State group, as the president pointed out, is neither Islamic nor a state. The group is made of mostly Muslims and are known for its brutality in the Middle East. It not only tortures, rapes and murders, but it also has tried to execute an entire religion via genocide as well as behead two American reporters while issuing threats about executing an additional British journalist.

The problem that the Islamic State group is causing in the Middle East needs to be put to an end. If that means that it is the United States that has to put an end to it, then so be it. We have tried stopping the Islamic State group’s attacks through air strikes. The United States has had 150 successful air strikes on Iraq and Syria.

This has potential to be a wise move for the United States. It has proven time and time again that there is a government struggle in Iraq. There were problems for the Iraqi people under the rule of Saddam Hussein; it was a struggle when the United States pushed them to form a democracy and there is a religious problem between the Sunni, Shia and Kurds that dates farther back than the existence of the United States. It is safe to say that there has not been peace in the Middle East for a very long time.

The corruption of the government in Iraq and the involvement of terrorist groups is spreading from Iraq into other areas of the Middle East. The Islamic State group, which for now is primarily in Iraq and Syria, is beginning to branch out into other countries while continuing to murder innocent people in the most barbaric of ways. If the United States were to not intervene, there is a strong possibility that the Islamic State group could take over most of the Middle East.

“We are trying to provide humanitarian support,” Obama said in his announcement Sept. 10. “But we will use force against anyone who threatens us.”

The cruel beheadings of two American journalists by the Islamic State group showed America, as well as the rest of the world, that it was putting a target on America’s back. Since the murder of the journalists, Obama and many others in this nation are taking it as a direct threat.

The Islamic State group needs to be stopped. The problems in the Middle East are continuing to worsen, and the Islamic State group is going to have a target on its back as long as it threatens the Middle East and the United States. It is time that America steps up and does something to protect the rest of the Middle East as well as itself.