If we have to go that way, then we can just blame it all on Sarah sending Hagar away. No, the Muslim Brotherhood has existed for decades and so for that matter has Al Qaeda. ISIS might have made use of them, but there is no way the people on the playing cards would have been leading a band of bloodthirsty criminals if they had not suffered the indignity of being kicked out of power in favor of those they previously lorded it over.
Bush owns this and it might just be his guilty conscience talking. Would it be better if American soldiers’ blood was being spilled instead of innocent Iraqis, Syrians and foreign hostages? A surge (not sustainable over time) and outright bribery (paying the tribal leaders) is what bought a precarious lull in the carnage. The ousted generals and their own were just biding their time. Time is what wins wars (or should I say, ‘shifts the balance of power’ - since the strife doesn’t really end) in those parts of the world. Same story with Afghanistan: never been conquered because time is what wears outsiders down over and over again. When presuming to march out against the world, it would behoove one to open a history book first…