ISIS emerged in 1999 as a small religious group of radical thinkers. They were made the small fish in the pond because of Al-Qaeda and their attacks on the US in 2001. Only in the last two to three years has ISIS gained enough followers and support to hit international media as the new “terror of the middle-east.” But to actually understand how Al-Qaeda and ISIS were created, we have to look into our own history rather than that of the Middle-East.

Although this may be hard to hear for those who are overly patriotic, the United States created ISIS and Al-Qaeda whether directly or indirectly as a result of the military training and financial backing by United States governmental agencies. During the cold war, the CIA funded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a barrier, both to thwart a Soviet expansion and prevent the spread of Marxist ideology among the Arab masses. The United States also openly supported Sarekat Islam against Sukarno in Indonesia. But the most significant assistance was the CIA funding of Al-Qaeda. This enabled Osama Bin Laden to rise to power. The CIA trained Islamic extremists for preservation of our own dignity as the world power.

Al-Qaeda has receded from the headlines and has been replaced by ISIS, which the US also created. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq. This apparently heroic act of “anti-terrorism” created the largest terrorist group ever. When we brought down Saddam Hussein’s powerful government, we did not create democracy and a free-market. Instead we left Iraq with a predominantly Shiite administration and mass unemployment in Sunni areas. We completely destroyed the system of socialism and systematically defunded Sunni people. This caused distress and discontent between the two groups. Although we may have caused the down bringing of Al-Qaeda, the formations of the terrorist group was funneled into ISIS in Syria.

And guess what. Even today, the US still has a dog in this fight even after all the chaos we caused. The US decided to risk funding militant rebels in Syria because they were opposed to the president Bashar al-Assad who is a Russian ally. Ironically, these militants have turned out to be the extremists of ISIS.

As the world hegemon, it is our obligation to “solve” international disputes, but looking at the dispute we actually caused, the US has an extremely weak foreign policy. We decide to continue funding extremists, fighting for rich oil lands, and it’s all to stop Russia gaining control of the Middle-East. The on coming of the new destructive terror group is just a number to the CIA and federal government. As long as we stay in control, the deaths of thousands of innocent people don’t matter. This mindset is what caused the 9/11 and Paris attacks.

The pattern that emerges after looking at all CIA and military actions in the Middle-East is that every single time we put our foot in the door of the affairs of the Middle-East, we cause the upbringing of a new terrorist group or corrupt regime. The US needs to completely take out all troops and stop all funding of militant rebels after we destroy ISIS. The problem we had when we invaded Iraq was that we tried to completely take out all roots of government after the fighting of Al-Qaeda. We do need to deploy more troops to ensure the destruction of ISIS, but after that, we need to leave the government as it is. This will lead to the flourishing of a more controlling government, so next time, we don’t have to solve another country’s problem.