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I would counter that Iraq and Afghanistan both offered an excellent training ground for militants from around the planet, which provided Al-Qaeda and other grou
by phobosanomaly 6y ago
I would counter that Iraq and Afghanistan both offered an excellent training ground for militants from around the planet, which provided Al-Qaeda and other groups with thousands of battle-hardened soldiers. The US basically created a factory for 'bolder Islamist forces.'
On top of that the power vacuum created by dismantling the Iraqi government (especially the dissolution of the Iraqi military) directly led to the emergence of ISIS in newly unstable areas filled with weapons where the new Iraqi government had zero reach.
- onepointsixC 6y agoThe problem here is several fold, while America's disastrous invasion of Iraq exasperated certain conditions, that does not mean that similar conditions couldn't have come about without American intervention. Who is to say that should the US had not invaded Iraq there wouldn't right now be an Iraqi civil war just as there is the Syria Civil war. None of this addresses the Somalian civil war which is the on going conflict and predates US invasion of Iraq as well as other on going Islamist conflicts throughout Africa.
- phobosanomaly 6y agoSure there's always the what-if, but in the counterfactual there likely wouldn't be nearly as much cash and weapons floating around. There are significant ties between groups. They may not be under a unified command structure, but training, funding, and fighters pass between regional organizations. Al-Qaeda has done more than a fair share of mischief in Somalia, and there's no doubt that groups like al-Shabaab have reaped the benefits of learning from Al-Qaeda.