The Mujahideen, and especially the Arabs who joined and dominated their cause, including Osama bin Laden, hated, and continue to hate, the US for propping up the very corrupt Saudi Arabian government. Saudi Arabia has perhaps the most unequal wealth distribution on the planet. The House of Saud was installed by the British in the 1930s and US oil companies followed. Imagine a foreign power that came to the US, installed some small group as a dictatorial government (anybody who doesn't think Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship is invited to spend a month or two there) and backed them up with its military might, made that small group fabulously wealthy, trained its secret police, extracted American mineral wealth on favorable terms, and said nothing about its puppet government's repression. How would you feel about that foreign nation? Like the Mujahideen, you might take that nation's aid if it helped defeat another enemy, but you'd still despise that nation.

The corrupt coterie that runs Saudi Arabia has been playing us for decades, with oil as their trump card. Is it any wonder that those on the outside in that nation hate us? I find it quite logical. Many of the insiders (like Osama bid Laden once was) hate us too, although they'll take our military assistance and sell us oil. That hasn't stopped them from funding Sunni terrorists across the Middle East and elsewhere (15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists hailed from Saudi Arabia), paying them off so they don't upset the applecart in Saudi Arabia. With "friends" like Saudi Arabia, who needs enemies, and is it any wonder that those who don't like its government don't like the US government?

They didn't start killing Americans until we got involved in the Middle East during the Cold War.

Nobody yet has been able to figure out how to maintain a sustained invasion of the US (at least not for a couple of centuries) and I don't think a bunch of Islamic fanatics will either. I also suspect if we get out of their countries, they'll leave us alone. Take away their favorite "Satan" and they'll be stuck killing each other. The only way they can defeat us is if we're over there.

Good point Robbie. Hard to just ignore people like that.

What I've said since 9/12/01 is stay out of the Middle East and let Allah sort it out. Whoever is in charge will need money and they'll sell the world's largest economy oil, which is all we should really care about.

The SOF agreement was talked about as if it was completely expected. The US has been hypocritical before so that would not have been much of a shock. The biggest question is not how we got here but what do we do now? Would partitioning still work?

By "had the clout" you essentially mean the US could have placed our army in Iraq against the wishes of the Iraqi government and its people. While I agree that would be entirely consonant with our one true "interest" in the Middle East--oil--it would also expose our complete hypocrisy in promoting "democracy" there.

Great article Straight. I still think the threat of US troops would have been enough to stop this kind of chaos. Energy independence is the answer. It takes away our primary interest in the Middle East but Obama seems to be working against that goal.

Has it ever been explained how it was possible for the Iraqi government to not sign on to a status of forces agreement? I know they didn't want to agree to the immunity clause but we should have had the clout to force the issue.

For my take on this situation. see:

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/8f...

Two points about the current Iraq situation that have been overlooked. We have no troops in Iraq now because Iraq did not want them there. Much has been made about Obama's "failure" to negotiate a Status of Forces agreement. Obama, however, offered a continuing presence of 10,000 troops. The sticking point was a clause, standard in SOF agreements, giving our troops and intelligence officials immunity from Iraqi civil and criminal judicial processes for acts committed in Iraq. After Abu Ghraib and other atrocities, Iraq would not agree to immunity, and that killed the deal. Even now, without an SOF with an immunity clause, a soldier who shoots a civilian he mistakenly thought was aiming a rifle at him, or a soldier who goes berserk after his best friend is blown up by an IED and takes out his anger on civilians, can be subject to Iraq's judicial processes. These things happen in wars, especially wars fought at 115 degrees.
The other point is that ISIS we are supposed to be fighting in Iraq is the exact same ISIS we were supposed to ally with in Syria. It is an offshoot of Sunni al Qaeda and draws financial support and military manpower from our supposed allies, Sunni Turkey and Sunni Saudi Arabia. By putting ourselves on the side of the Shi'a Iraqi government, we put ourselves on the side of Shi'a Iran, whether anyone admits it or not, which until recently was our Great Satan in the Middle East. If somebody can give me a rational explanation for our pretzel logic Middle East policy, I'd love to hear it, but I sure didn't get it from the Cheney opinion piece. Not once in the article were the words Sunni and Shi'a even used, although that schism is the key to understanding what has happened for the past several centuries in the Middle East, and will probably remain the key for the next several centuries.

Thank you sir. Hostis Humani Generis is the term that best describes these ISIS insurgents. They are the "Enemy of Mankind". We are facing a two front war, they are the foreign (outside) threat, Barack Hussein Obama is the domestic (inside) threat to freedom.
Demonizing Halliburton is a tactic of moochers who could succeed on their own merit.
Cheers

As I was reminded recently, the Obama Doctrine does exist, it is "You didn't build that" followed by "Spreading your wealth around"

I'm amazed at how many think "profit" is such a evil thing. Very well said Bob!

Well done!

Really? Darth Vader? The likes of Bertram Scudder's MSM has infiltrated and poisoned your mind. The former Vice President is probably one of the most consistent and accurate members of any administration in discussing and challenging the threat to humanity from these Jihadi pieces of human debris.
Since when was private enterprise the enemy. Halliburton is a company that does a lot of thing really well in places where no one else, or very very few has the balls or ability to operate.

I thought the editorial accurately described the situation 6 years ago and compared it to the complete failure that is Barack Hussein Obama's foreign policy.
The bigger issue here is that President Obama is acting unilaterally and, quoting from this article " ... seems determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch. Indeed, the speed of the terrorists' takeover of territory in Iraq has been matched only by the speed of American decline on his watch."

He has dismissed congress as a threat to his power to act as he wishes, a statist authoritarian with no reason to hide. The Bertram Scudder mouthpieces for the MSM describe his action as if they come from nameless and faceless bureaucrats. But they are the ACTIONS of Barack Hussein Obama.
BHO orders his EPA to kill coal with 30% reduction in carbon emissions mandate.
BHO orders the Patent and Trademark Office to give away the property rights of the Washington Redskin. Can you say directive 10-289?
BHO orders the HHS to take away your right to choose your doctor and your health insurance choices.
BHO orders the IRS to put their jack boot on your throat to silence your free speech rights. True the vote, patriot, Tea Party. And then, Surprise! the computers with all the emails of incrimination - Oh, the hard drives crashed.
BHO orders the CBP to essentially open the southern boarder.
BHO orders the DOJ to become the department of Social Justice. To hell with anyone that isn't one of us. Crush them.
BHO is in full frontal assault on the DOD. Withdrawing unilaterally from all territory liberated by American and its ally's' blood. Then trade and free 5 terrorists for one traitor.
BHO has executed failure after failure in foreign policy, if by failure it results in the diminishment of American influence in the world. Syrian - Red Line, Ukraine, Status of Forces agreement in Iraq & Afghanistan, Benghazi, NATO missile defense in Poland, Russia rest button.......on and on and on.
BHO's new America is now typified by his comments before the lesbian,gay, bi, transgender, pedophile community. They are now free from the oppression that WAS America. In SFO last night, he demanded that they join him and demand a livable minimum wage, welcome anyone who wants to come here from anywhere. The new majority will rule. Freedom will be dead!
BHO addresses the graduating 2nd Lieutenants at the U S Military Academy, not with a coherent foreign policy statement, but a rambling speech on global warming.
BHO orders his EPA, DOA, DOE to kill the engine of capitailism - the free flow of energy at market prices, by imposing strangling regulations on every industry that uses fossil fuels.
BHO wants to turn 10% of the ocean into a refuge, undefiled by human access or use. You living your life, you are destroying the planet so we are going to stop you and your mind and enslave they to our will.
BHO rewards his campaign contributors, like Solindra, GE, unions, in a crony socialist scheme.
BHO ordered his VA to deny the earned benefits to our veterans by giving monetary incentives to the bureaucrats to make it look like socialized medicine works.
BHO is a TYRANT!
When you put HIS name on everything his government has done to this country and its citizens, it make Vice President Richard Cheney look like a the very smartest man on the entire planet who is fighting for the America I was born into.
Cheers

It could be a repeat and it would still pre-occupy half the country.

Some of Cheney's comments are also very interesting. They (Cheney, Bush, Obama) are to blame, really.

Time for us, as a nation to really get introspective and evaluate what causes a superpower to behave as we have. But...that introspection won't happen. Honey Boo Boo is on.

The Obama Doctrine is right on schedule...
1) Ending Individual Rights
2) Ending Capitalism
3) Ending Nation-States
4) Ending Private Property
5) Ending Western civilization
6) Creating Global Tribalism with Him as chief

I just don't use rational thought to figure out irrational people. The only thing these backwards insurgents understand is brute force or the threat of it. Obama has completely removed even the threat of force. He seems willing to sit back and let the most violent group available take over all of Syria and Iraq.