ISIS is Bush's fault, period

[AZ Progressive]

ISIS is a direct result of both Saddam's Baath party members (that became a part of the insurgency during the Iraq War), and Al Qaeda in Iraq, that was also a part of the insurgency and initially was named ISI (Islamic State of Iraq) in 2006. Both came together to create this monster.

If Bush and Cheney never orchestrated the Iraq War, Saddam's Baath Party would've stayed in their place, and Al Qaeda in Iraq would have never existed or had the battle experience that would help it later on to become the ISIS monster.

Thus, quite simply ISIS is Bush's fault, or even Bush's creation.

[Tipperary]

1. President Obama has been in office now for eight years.

Is he completely blameless?

[AZ Progressive]

2. Is Obama at fault for the 2008 economic crisis?

[merrily]

6. False equivalency. The crisis occurred ib full before his election. That is not so of involvement in

the Middle East. One can say/debate/argue he had no other choice on some things, but our last almost 7 years are his responsibility. None of the economic collapse was. He does, however, have responsibility for the second half of the TARP because Bush endgamed on that while he was still President-Elect, but that's another issue.

[Warpy]

9. He took office in 2009

Before that, he was usually outvoted in the Senate.

[merrily]

12. Yep, January 2009.

[Tipperary]

19. When a person answers a question with another question,

that is an answer in itself. Smh.

[randys1]

3. You can blame him for not removing us entirely from the ME, which NO candidate running

has suggested either, so any president is going to be culpable.

[Quixote1818]

5. Are you connected to Ireland? Just curious how you came to use the screen name Tipperary?

Went through there a couple of years ago and saw the Rock of Cashel. Stayed at a B & B next to the Galtee Mountains.

[edhopper]

18. Explain how Obama

helped create ISIS.

Please proceed...

[merrily]

4. The Constitution does not allow the CIC to go to war without a vote from Congress. So, no, it was

not only Bush. Not legally and not factually. We can pretend otherwise for years--and DU apparently has--but that does not make it so. As for post January 2009, please see my Reply 6 upthread.

[AZ Progressive]

7. Would ISIS have happened if Bush hadn't become president?

Yes, others are complicit, just as Colin Powell was. But who was the mastermind?

I guess you could fault Cheney and the other Neocons, but they wouldn't have had power if it wasn't for Bush. They simply rode the bandwagon to gain power.

[merrily]

15. I responded to your points in Replies 4 and 6.

[Warpy]

8. He had a hell of a lot of help from the Saudis

who have been exporting their intolerant and often vicious Islam across the world for decades.

Bush only lit the fuse on the cultural bomb the Saudis have been carefully building since they got rich on oil.

[AZ Progressive]

10. Saddam's Baath party would have stayed in place and not have gotten together with Al Qaeda

If Bush hadn't done the Iraq War. Baath party members that served under Saddam are a big part of the ISIS monster.

[Warpy]

16. They're providing the military core to the movement

and are the main reason for all their early successes.

Their ideology came from the Saudis. Baathists were socialists and largely secular.

[napkinz]

11. Share these memes!

[cali]

13. It goes back much further than bush

[bigwillq]

14. Him and anyone who voted for that damn war

are certainly at fault here.

[napkinz]

17. Bush & Cheney, founding fathers (toons)