Former Marine Corps Answers, Did the US Create ISIS?

Former Marine Corps Answers, Did the US Create ISIS?
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Do you believe the "U.S. created ISIS"? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Elliot Ackerman, Author of Dark at the Crossing, former Marine Corps Special Operations, on Quora.

What is occurring now in the Middle East is an existential crisis for the future of the region. Will the Middle East stay within its current national boundaries? Will ultra-conservative strands of Islam prove dominant over more progressive and tolerant strands? These are the issues at stake. I don't believe that the U.S. created ISIS per se, but many U.S. policies have enabled the spread of Islamic radicalism. The list of these U.S. missteps is long: the Iraq Invasion, Guantanamo, the drone program, our failure to support certain groups during the Arab Spring, our lack of coherent strategy in Syria. These many missteps have both fed a narrative of U.S. compliance in the persecution of Muslims and also led to a discrediting of American democratic values. I am not trying to make a partisan argument because I believe we has a country have failed to understand how our actions have influenced events in the Middle East. Both President's Bush and Obama made significant strategic errors, which have prolonged the wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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