Tom Engelhardt — The National Security State’s Incestuous Relationship with ISIS

Here in a nutshell is what bin Laden grasped before 9/11: with modest millions of dollars and a relatively small number of followers, he and his movement couldn’t hope to create the world of their fervid dreams. If, however, he could lure the planet’s “sole superpower” into stepping into his universe, military first, it would change everything and so do his work for him. And indeed (see: invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq), an operation mounted for an estimated $400,000 to $500,000, using 19 dedicated (mostly Saudi) followers armed only with paper cutters, did just that.

And it’s never stopped since because, just as bin Laden dreamed, Washington helped loose al-Qaeda and its successor outfits from the constraints of a more organized, controlled world. In these last 14 years of failed wars and conflicts of every sort, American military power, aided and abetted by the Saudis, the British, the French, and other countries on a case-by-case basis, essentially fractured the Greater Middle East. It helped create five failed states (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen), worlds in which terror groups could thrive and in the chaos of which they could attract ever more recruits.

And lest we forget, the US originally launched the "freedom fighters" aka mujahideen in Afghanistan to confront Russia by proxy.  That maneuver morphed into Al Qaeda, and while Russia was forced out of Afghanistan, Taliban took over and invited Bin Laden to set up shop there. The rest is history, as Engelhardt relates.

TomDispatch
The National Security State’s Incestuous Relationship with ISIS
Tom Engelhardt

We haven't seen even the beginning of ugly yet.