We certainly do not 'need' to intervene. More so because there is a serious lack of education in the West regarding why the turmoil in Iraq is going on. Calling ISIL 'terrorists' and 'al-qaeda affiliated' is vague at best and overly simplistic. There is an ever ongoing feud between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq as well as the whole Muslim world. The Iraqi government under Maliki has been categorically repressing Sunnis, as a result of which they have had to flee places like Baghdad, Basra, for Northern areas, and these places are populated with people who support ISIL purely because they detest the government. The news won't tell you any of that. It'll condense it into a 'government' versus 'extremist Islamist West-hating terrorists' argument. This war, between Shiites and Sunnis, is inevitable. I may as well add that end times seem well nigh upon us.