THE IRAQ WAR AT 20.

Distraction from the war on terrorism, disorder within Iraq itself, intra-Iraqi violence that would drag the U.S. in deeper, an insurgency led by members of Saddam's former regime, and an Iranian-sponsored revolt in Iraq's southern regions were only some of the very real possibilities. ELLIOT ACKERMAN WHEN the war in Iraq began, we were in crisis. An overbearing Shiite government then led to the resurgence of al-Qaeda in Iraq, renamed "ISIS" (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). When President Barack Obama exploited this climate to withdraw (in accordance with premature terms to which Bush had agreed with Iraq's teetering, Tehran-friendly government), ISIS arose from the seedlings of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The case that jihadists had aligned with a monstrous government was weaker as to Saddam Hussein's Iraq than as to other fundamentalist Islamic regimes, in particular Shiite Iran. [Extracted from the article]