By Philip Ewing, Politico.com, Oct. 31, 2013

The Obama administration appears open to stepping up some assistance for Iraq as it struggles with a rash of deadly terror attacks, but opposition in Congress could present a major roadblock.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is scheduled to meet Friday with President Barack Obama and plans to ask him for “a deeper security relationship between the United States and Iraq to combat terrorism and address broader regional security concerns, including the conflict in Syria and the threat that proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons could pose in the region,” al-Maliki wrote this week in The New York Times. [Link to the op-ed: Have Patience With Us; The Iraqi Prime Minister's Plea to Americans.]

A senior administration official told reporters that although Washington wants to help Baghdad suppress the Al Qaeda-linked terrorists who are seeping into Iraq from civil war-torn Syria, large numbers of American troops will not head back to Iraq, and the jury remains out on additional military hardware.

Instead, the official said, the U.S. and Baghdad will use an “overall strategic approach” to try to pursue the terror network that now calls itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, whose leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, is believed to be operating from Syria.

“This is a major and increasing threat to Iraq’s stability, an increasing threat to our regional partners and an increasing threat to the U.S.,” the official said [....]