Why are U.S. Drones and fighter planes in Iraq?

I think there are many different factors going on here. First, since the U.S. was in Iraq so long we have a vested interest in everything we did there not going completely all to hell with the Islamic State genociding everyone not an extremist Sunni Muslim.

Then it is midterm elections for a lame duck Obama in the last 3 years or so of his Presidency and he isn't running again because of Term limits. So, by 2017 in January or February there will be a new President just starting out.

So, he is trying to make the most of the time he has left. History is on his mind at present. And if 40,000 people die and Irbil or Baghdad falls on his watch history would judge that probably pretty badly against him and his presidency.

I think it is similar in some ways to when Clinton was in office. First, there was the Blackhawk down debacle in Somalia that caused Clinton to decide to let Somalia sort of fall into the ocean for awhile after that and it did as a country. Then there were the wars in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia that cost so many lives there.

NOte: There is a pretty good movie called "Blackhawk down" about what actually happened there in the 1990s.
Here it is:

Black Hawk Down (2001) - IMDb

www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/

Internet Movie Database

Rating: 7.7/10 - ‎238,030 votes

Black Hawk Down -- Based on the true story of a war waged in Mogadishu · Black Hawk Down -- 123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top ...

‎Full Cast & Crew - ‎(2001) Poster - ‎Gabriel Casseus - ‎Trivia

 

Here is info about the Yugoslav wars we helped end at that time in the 1990s.

Yugoslav Wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars

Wikipedia
By the early 1990s, there was no effective authority at the federal level. ... The Croatian War of Independence began when Serbs in Croatia, who were opposed ...
Croatian War of Independence - Wikipedia, the free ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence

Wikipedia
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat .... In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on the lines of the ...

‎Republic of Serbian Krajina - ‎Operation Storm - ‎Franjo Tuđman - ‎Water tower
Bosnian War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War

Wikipedia
The post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina encompasses all three Bosnian ethnic .... On 22 December 1990, the Croatian Parliament adopted a new Constitution, ...
 The Wars of the Former Yugoslavia - European History
europeanhistory.about.com › ... › The Balkans and Turkey
by Robert Wilde - A narrative history of the wars of the Former Yugoslavia, fought in the 1990s. ... clear as Serb vs Croat vs Muslim – many small civil wars erupted over decades of ...
Clinton responded with fighter jets from the U.S. from aircraft carriers a lot like now to try to stop the genocide against Muslims then by extremist Christians there at that time. 
Now, Obama is trying to stop the slaughter of Shia Muslims and Yazidis and Christians and Kurds in Kurdistan in Northern IRaq especially in Irbil and sending in drones with hellfire missiles and food and water to the Yazidis etc. and fighter jets and drones in to blow up Islamic state armored vehicles and artillery that once belonged to the U.S. army and then to the Iraqi Army.
So, people Minorities like Kurds and Shias and Christians and Yazidis and others are being killed with stuff that was originally U.S. Army issue given to the Iraqi army which makes one think about how much U.S. stuff is getting into the wrong hands these days? 


NATO likely would like to get involved in this humanitarian effort just like they did in Libya. But then, look at Libya now and is it really better off now than when Qadhaffi was there at this point?


And if NATO got involved RUssia might veto any UN actions in this area because of Syria and Iran's points of view.


Also, Europe (including Great Britain) is concerned about 9-11 types of happenings coming home with Islamic state fighters that return over time from Syria and Iraq and Lebanon.

And it also must be noted that U.S. security is also worried about 9-11 events here in the U.S. from Islamic state fighters now coming over the border from Mexico with illegal passports.