Guess What? USA Funded ISIS From the Start (Can we PLEASE GTFO now?):
“ISIS (which ISIL is also referred to as) was able to infiltrate Iraqi government ministries and has the support of members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, the Islamic Front (originally formed in 2004 as a resistance group to the U.S. occupation) and other Sunni groups,” Emran El-Badawi, director of the Arabic program at the University of Houston, said in an email.
The relationship between ISIL — an Al-Qaeda breakaway group — and other Sunni groups goes back to the beginning of the Iraq war. In the 2005 surge in Iraq, local tribes with U.S. funding built a coalition (known as the “Sunni Awakening Movement” or “Sons of Iraq”) that began combatting Al-Qaeda and other extreme groups to restore security and calm sectarianism. The program met with some success.
"These 90,000 ‘Sons of Iraq’ made a significant contribution to the reported 90% drop in sectarian violence in 2007-2008," said an op-ed co-written by Derek Harvey, a former senior intelligence official, and Michael Pregent, a former U.S. Army officer and onetime senior intelligence analyst.
But all that changed after U.S. forces withdrew and Maliki refused to integrate the Sunni tribes into the government. Off the payroll and pushed aside, the Sunnis were at a disadvantage and felt abandoned — while the Shias had full control of Baghdad and the south, and the Kurds had control of much of the north.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/19/isil-thousands-fighters.html More blowback from the brainiacs determining US foreign policy. Meantime, the war profits and oil money keep going to the well connected.
It's not about anything noble. Let's leave before we create another 9-11. At least, that's my view.
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