> Bush and obama policy failures in Iraq led to the rise of ISIS <
I put most of the blame for this mess on George W. Bush. ISIS operated out of western Iraq and eastern Syria. Saddam Hussain never, ever would have allowed that.
Bush did ISIS a big favor by getting rid of Saddam. Just like Carter did the mullahs a big favor by getting rid of the Shah.
Bush and Carter, the best you can say about them is that they naively ignored the law of unintended consequences. But I would not be so kind. I consider them both fools whose meddling made ugly situations much, much worse.
One of Bush 43’s huge policy failures was excluding Saddams senior military intelligence and security personnel from the post Saddam reunification plan,
Yeah the baathists were murderous scum but powerful experienced operatives from influential tribes in a region where clan and tribal loyalties prevail over outsiders
Locking these former officials out sent them into central Iraq to use their skills, power thuggery and influence to build resistance vs the “ occupiers” using extremism. Hence Al Qaeda which splintered over power issues. And ISIS was born,
“I put most of the blame for this mess on George W. Bush. ISIS operated out of western Iraq and eastern Syria. Saddam Hussain never, ever would have allowed that.....Bush did ISIS a big favor by getting rid of Saddam. “
That’s a bunch of B.S.
ISIS began as an Al Queda offshoot, in Iraq. They went through more than one name change during the civil war that followed the American victory over Saddam. They became one of the Sunni terrorist outfits, fighting the Shia militias and us. By the time the Petraeus surge had worked, the ISIS group had become an ineffective remnant, still marauding when they could but not considered a major threat any more.
Then a few things happened over a few years.
In Iraq, Obama and Maliki did not sign a SOFA agreement, and U.S. military presence was reduced to a remnant and not much involved in Iraqi security any longer.
Then, unconstrained by the U.S. any longer, Maliki began governing more as a Shia for the Shia and less as an Iraqi for all Iraqis. Sunni resentment against Maliki grew across all Iraq. Radicals among the Sunni, like ISIS, began to find more willing recruits among the Sunni in Iraq.
Then when Syria became destabilized, ISIS moved into the mess in Syria and getting converts from those opposed to Assad in the process. As Assad got tied down in the rest of Syria, ISIS grew in the north and east. Syria became a true military theater where ISIS could build an actual army, which it did. Eventually it became powerful enough to re-enter Iraq in force; which it did. In Iraq Maliki had made a political shambles of the Iraqi military and security in general. The western provinces became ripe for the picking by ISIS.
Bush did not create ISIS or send them to Syria.
What you can blame both Obama and Bush for is the creation (Bush) and the follow through (Obama) on the regime change agenda to get rid of Assad.
Obama then made it even worse. He only half-assed followed through, which left a bigger mess than if he had either cut it off at the head (the regime change agenda), or blasted Assad out of power very very early on, before the Islamist militias in Syria got built. ISIS would either way not have had a destabilized Syria to grow in.