Comment: A multicultural city of peace for millennia has been conquered, divided and transformed in the 12 years since US invasion. But Baghdadis are resisting, says Haifa Zangana.
Comment: Those displaced internally are all too often ignored by the international media, even though their suffering is often no less than those forced abroad.
Comment: The US and the IS have both tried to turn Iraq into a "blank slate" so they can recast the country in their own image, doing immeasurable damage to Iraq's cultural heritage in the attempt.
Terrorist attacks are used by western governments and Israel to cover up, rather than let anyone think or try to understand the context. The response is the same: Send more troops, order more airstrikes and sign more lucrative arms contracts.
Across the region, there has been an explosive reaction to the systematic oppression of ordinary people - and it doesn't need highly paid 'analysts' to figure out why.