Yes, Bush helped create ISIS — and set up the Middle East for a generation of chaos

Yes, Bush helped create ISIS — and set up the Middle East for a generation of chaos

by Zack Beauchamp at Vox

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/2/8703059/bush-isis-middle-east

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Bush wanted to remake the Middle East: replace the region's autocracies with democracies, and solve America's terrorism problem in the process. But the plan failed. Iraq became embroiled in a vicious civil war. Iran grew in strength, kicking off an increasingly sectarian fight with Saudi Arabia that has fueled conflict throughout the region.

When the Arab Spring protests toppled governments in the region, it added to the chaos, and provided new theaters of conflict. Neither Bush's new plan nor the Cold War-era strategy that preceded it had any good answers for these problems.

This collapse in American strategy didn't cause the Arab Spring, or all of the chaos that followed it. But it was a huge contributor to the problems the region faces today — and explains why the United States seems totally unable to do anything about it.

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So the Iraq war "was the real beginning of [a] new Middle East cold war" between Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to F. Gregory Gause, a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M. This was a major failure for the post–Cold War alliance system: American might was supposed to help keep Iran in line, not empower it. Hence, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states felt like they needed to start being a lot more aggressive in countering Iran — which helped produce a dangerous competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran that's playing out today.



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