by Sandy » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:29 pm
There would not now be an ISIS or ISIL, or whatever they go by, if the US had not invaded Iraq, removed Saddam Hussein from power, in so doing upsetting the balance of power in the region, and creating the vacuum into which this particular insurgency has spread. Volumes can be written about the whole history of the region, from British imperialism to the economic interests that have led to exploitation of resources and of cheap labor, that explain the developments of the day. When people are impoverished and oppressed, and they feel powerless, the only thing they have to turn to is their religion, and in the process, it becomes fanatical and its principles get distorted because it is seen as the only effective weapon and the only way out.
The country of Iraq is a product of the Treaty of Versailles and the end of the Ottoman Empire, a drawing on a map designed not to pull together the common cultural and religious elements of one people, but to best benefit the British Empire's growing need for oil, and its trade routes to India. There are a lot of "ifs" here but the bottom line is that governments created by the Western powers in the wake of insurgencies will never gain the respect of the people, and there will always be another insurgency to take the place of the previous one.