re: Question RE: ISIS

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We really screwed the pooch there. To this day I'm dumbfounded by that decision.

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Here's all I can think of on this issue that you have rightly mentioned previously: Why did the US throw out the Baath ?

The Baath Party were Sunnis and Saddamists. Also, they were the minority ethnic group in Iraq. It could be that the US policy-makers at the time thought that all Baathists had to go. They were bad guys in many ways. The US wanted a clean slate and a proper representation of the ethnic majority.

I agree with you that this plan wasn't going to work. It would have been better to keep remove Saddam but keep the Baathist Iraqi governmental structure in place for stability purposes.

This situation in Iraq may end up being like what happened to Germany after World War One.

The Allies demanded that defeated Imperial Germany dismantle its model of governance. When the replacement Weimar Republic deteriorated, it was then replaced by a virulent and destructive extremist government.

Perhaps a reformed Imperial Germany would have been able to withstand the challenges of extremism. Perhaps a reformed Baathist Iraq would be a stable post-Saddam Iraq today.

The problem with Imperial Germany was Wilhelm the Kaiser. Get a better Kaiser and solve the problem. Don't throw out stability.

The problem with Saddamist Iraq was Saddam. Get rid of Saddam and maybe Baathist Iraq becomes a stable and productive member of the community of nations.

Who knows?