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0 pointsepicureanideal7y ago0 comments

ISIS was created by the destabilization of those countries. There are plenty of easy to find links about this, so forgive me for not citing sources.

Also, given the nature of the activities, it's difficult to find authoritative sources, but I believe there were some WikiLeaks that had diplomatic cables discussing this.

Also if you read Syrian and Russian news, and the Syrians are certainly highly motivated to defeat ISIS as it's trying to take over their country, and the Russians are highly motivated to protect their ally, they both say the US has seemingly been helping ISIS as much as fighting it.

0 pointsepicureanideal7y ago0 comments

ISIS was created by the destabilization of those countries. There are plenty of easy to find links about this, so forgive me for not citing sources.

Also, given the nature of the activities, it's difficult to find authoritative sources, but I believe there were some WikiLeaks that had diplomatic cables discussing this.

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

platz7y ago· 4 in thread

Ok, but when are you "starting the clock", if not now, then how long ago? 10 years? 20? 30?

jdietrich7y ago

Most of the instability in the Middle East can be traced directly to the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Our current strategy is like fighting fire with gasoline, because the people we are fighting have a better understanding of history than we do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement

flukus7y ago

It goes back well before then to the Ottoman domination of the region and probably a few thousand years before that. Sykes-Picot was just a change of management. The area has been dominated by outsiders for most of recorded history.

baud1472587y ago

> have a better understanding of history than we do

Considering the level of literacy in the Middle-East, I doubt that's true. And I wouldn't call what they know history, but rather propaganda.

boomboomsubban7y ago

You don't start the clock anywhere, you should always consider the context that led to things happening.

jessaustin7y ago

...the US has seemingly been helping ISIS as much as fighting it.

Yeah it's amazing that after all the "moderate rebels" have left (if they ever existed in the first place), and we've kept flooding the area with weapons and ammunition, ISIS has ended up with lots of USA weapons and ammunition.

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