A cache of documents were found in a ISIS Syrian safe house, whose resident was killed in a firefight. They discuss the coalition between Islamicists and Iraqi military men that makes up ISIS.
The new reveal is that ISIS was created by Saddam’s former men. They provided military strategy. They chose the guy who would be the self-proclaimed caliph. They had deep ties to Syrian intelligence, which allowed them to form an uneasy partnership with Assad’s regime, where they would focus their efforts on common enemies.
They had knowledge of running a totalitarian state: that’s no small thing. The generals’ goal was to use ISIS as a method of taking over Iraq and re-establishing the old regime.
The US was persuaded to invade Iraq on the basis of alleged ties between Saddam and Islamicists: those allegations were lies.
[INDENT]"But the invasion made this falsehood true… One of America’s first decisions on taking Iraq-- a terrible mistake that has halted the region ever sense-- was to disband Iraq’s enormous army, leaving its officers and soldiers with no income… “bitter and unemployed”. [/INDENT]
They would later form the nucleus of ISIS. The secret plot behind the creation of ISIS - Vox
I say elections matter. Incompetence matters. Active decisions to pass over expert opinion in favor of fantasies of glory matter. There are negotiators, there are hawks, there are chicken hawks and there are those who never encounter a potential war they don’t like. The latter are a disgrace. Seriously – that characterization is appropriate if the claims are true, right?