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Obama sent in arms and funds to combat the Syrian government. I think his arms and funds wound up as the basis for ISIS. I think he accidentally or even purposefully funded and armed ISIS.

I think ISIS has many fathers, none of them necessarily named Obama, no matter how many things he may be guilty of. Walid Shoebat points at the Sunni "creeping theocrats" running the anti-Kemalist (and counterrevolutionary, insofar as it would overturn much of Ataturk's modernization of Turkey) Erdogan regime, which is up to its knuckles in the rise of ISIS. Shoebat (who isn't necessarily spot-on) accuses the Turks of wanting to help re-establish the Caliphate (which they owned), and then dominate it politically. There's also Pan-Turkism, an idea in Turkey that would see the Turkish government reaching out to Turkic peoples from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean (the easternmost Turks live on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk). A Sunni Caliphate would make a good bolster to the formation of such a far-flung ethnic association. Talk about identity politics ....

There is a lot of identity politics -- it's true the world over (just the West likes to pretend it's so "19th century")

The Turks (who aren't really Turkic by blood :-P ) idealize pan-Turkism linking themselves to Azeris (who are mostly Irani by blood) to Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Uighurs and the various Turkic groups in Russia and China (not to mention the Gagauz in Moldova), then you have the pan-Arabism and Iran's reaching out to Irani peoples

Then you have the pan-Shia movement (linking such groups as Twelvers, Alevis, Zayidis (Yemen), Bori, Ismaili etc. with dubious Shias (well dubious Moslem as well) groups like the Alawis or Druze) versus the Sunni ummah

And the Russian and Chinese moves at the same.

identity politics never left us...

>>>”I think he accidentally or even purposefully funded and armed ISIS.”<<<

I really never believed ANYTHING in politics and that part of the world was ever “accidental”. Stupid, myopic, a continuation of sorts? Very probable; ‘accidental’? Nope.

Additionally, I never quite understood why some continue to kiss Saudi Arabia’s butt; the Iranian mullahs, similar to the Saudi Arabian Royals, are atrocious; both instigate terrorism. The former more outwardly and the latter more surreptitiously.

There was a time when Saudi Royals protected oil prices in OPEC in favor of their Western allies. But those days are fast disappearing. And, if you read Saudi press in last several months, the general feeling they put out (much more publicly now) is that they need to look after their own, both economically & politically.

As for Saudi Arabian Royals & gov’t, has anyone ever asked why they, Saudis & their Gulf Satellites, similar to the Iranian mullahs, don’t and have never (formally) recognized Israel? — Saudi Arabia to date does Not have any official or diplomatic relations with Israel, either.

Thanks for the mention. I don’t discount Turkey’s involvement. I will note, that immediately after our supply of arms and funds to the enemies of the Syrian government, ISIS rose from obscurity to be a dynamic force in the region.

We knew the forces against the Assad regime were al Qaeda at least in part. We actually gave funds to al Qaeda. Now there is no mention of al Qaeda, only ISIS. It’s as if al Qaeda threw off their al Qaeda jerseys and downed ISIS ones.

It’s like the Democrat party in the U. S. One day they’re Liberals and the Next they’re progressives.

What else changed? Nothing!