America created the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria? Meet the ISIS 'truthers'I'd go a bit further.
'Cockburn says that by fighting ISIS in Iraq and supporting its objectives in Syria (toppling President Bashar al-Assad), the U.S. "has created a situation in which ISIS can survive and may well flourish." But Cockburn also accuses the U.S. of arming ISIS — not just because U.S. weapons and vehicles given to Iraq's army fell into ISIS's hands, but because it armed other militias in Syria, some of which were known to be allied with jihadists.
Cockburn also says the U.S. enabled the rise of al Qaeda, ISIS, and other Islamist groups because it didn't take on allies Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, "the two countries that fostered jihadism as a creed and a movement."
Still, while the facts may be correct, the chain of causation in this theory seems a little weak.'