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Comment by actionfromafar | Hacker News Reader

ISIS filled the power vacuum of a larger regional instability caused by the (botched) US invasion and provided several (fleeting) local maxima of stability.

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I thought ISIS gained power in Syria first, taking advantage of the Syrian civil war which the US explicitly did NOT participate in.

The US invasion of Iraq was twenty years ago. Toppling the dictator Saddam and then failing (largely by self-sabotage) to capture the Iraqi state institutions intact was what created the power vacuum which made ISIS possible. Yet, it took a decade for it to really get going.

As I remember the story, the US funded, trained, and armed ISIS to fight Assad, then it backfired.

Huh it's the first time I am hearing that. Do you have any citations?

I remember reading about Al Qaeda / Bin Laden who was funded by CIA to fights Russians.

Unfortunately not off the top of my head, but I know scott horton has discussed it at length, "Enough already" probably has the sauce. I wasnt trying to correct anyone, thats just how I remember the events and was curious if anyone had any input.

Never heard of this before, but what we both say can be true at the same time.

Well the bit about bin laden and alqueda is certainly true to my knowledge. The government will only admit to funding the Taliban, not alqueda, but they are on record contributing quite a bit to one of the highest ranking members in alqueda, and its hard to imagine things don't get messy when you start delivering weapons to guerillas.

Bin laden is certainly true - it is documented properly and no one denies it. Funding ISIS seems to be a hoax though. Will be happy to be corrected.

> I thought ISIS gained power in Syria first, taking advantage of the Syrian civil war which the US explicitly did NOT participate in.

The US absolutely participated (and continues to participate in) the SCW.

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