When the Soviet Union took over Afghanistan the US helped some of the local fighters called Northern Alliance as well as more religious group fighting the Soviet soldiers. These groups were supported by the USA and Taliban was created.
Soviet Union was defeated and left Afghanistan. The Taliban took over most of the country and the Northern Alliance were in charge of the north part of Afghanistan. The leader of the Northern Alliance was assassinated and that was the end of the Northern Alliance. Taliban took over the entire country and imposing their fanatical religious ruling.
Meanwhile the Iraqis, with implied encouragement from the USA invaded Kuwait and that gave an excuse for the US forces to enter the Persian Gulf and create a base in Saudi Arabia under the auspicious of fighting the Iraqi forces so to free Kuwait and bringing back the Amir of Kuwait who was nothing short of dictator and allowing no freedoms to the women whatsoever and treating the women as chattel.
It is a well known fact that USA’s involvement in the Iraq-Kuwait war was fabricated so to allow the US to have a presence in the Persian Gulf where most of the world’s energy is imported from.
Kuwait was freed and Amir of Kuwait was reinstated as the leader and US forces remained in the Saudi Arabia which infuriated some of the religious people in Saudi Arabia as having non-moslem forces remaining in the holly land. Among these groups were Osama Bin Laden. Osama was and his band were also helping the Taliban to defeat the Soviet Union and were supported by the USA.
Then the tragedy of September 11, 2001 took place and gave a great excuse to the US government to invade Afghanistan. An invasion that accomplished nothing, but devastation of Afghanistan and the loss of many American soldiers and death of thousands of innocent Afghanis as well as loss of hundreds of billions of dollars. The irony is that Osama Bin Laden was neither captured nor killed through the invasion of Afghanistan.
On the surface Taliban was removed from power and a new and more democractic government with presidency of Hamid Karzai took over. This proved to be nothing but sheraid. The corruption was rampant and Hamid Karzai was only in control of Kabul and some other cities, but most of the country was under control of the war lords and Taliban.
In fact Taliban has become more powerful and having control over much more areas than before. Osama Bin Laden was killed through special operation in Pakistan over a decade later. That is what should have been done right after 9/11 rather than invading a country to capture one individual.
Two years into invasion of Afghanistan, the USA concocted the notion that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction and invaded Iraq. A mistake that to this date the USA is paying for it. Weeks after invasion it was discovered that the allegations of weapons of mass destruction was false and Americans were lied to.
Saddam was captured and later through a kangaroo trial was found guilty and before having the opportunity of appeal he was suddenly hanged in jail. The reason for his sudden and unexpected execution was that people started talking fondly of him and there was a possibility of people demanding his freedom and return to power as they realized the life under his rule was much better that what they got through the invasion. The US invasion of Iraq totally destroyed the country and created a mess. Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Quada took root in Iraq and started fighting the US forces.
The US support of the anti Gadhafi group and overthrow of Gadhafi and subsequent support of anti Assad groups in Syria created a mess in both countries. Libya is not a country anymore and is run by different factions. There is no central government and some religious fanatics are running some part of the country.
Syria is in turmoil and couple of hundred thousand people are dead, the anti Assad forces are combination of religious fanatics and some moderates. Through all these mess a more fanatical group has risen from Al Qaida forces. They call themselves Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS is the creation of the USA and some of the western European countries. Had there been no invasion of Iraq, there would not be any ISIS. Some of the members of ISIS are the military personnel belonging to Saddam forces.
Destabilization of Iraq, Syria, and Libya in the name of regime change and bringing democracy has back fired very badly. None of these countries are free nor democratic. All of these countries are in shamble and the people in dire need of help. Hundreds of thousands of people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya have fled the countries to the neighboring countries or to the European countries.
America needs to learn her lesson and stop interfering in other countries affairs, in particular countries run by dictators. Regime change is not removing the dictator. First we need to ensure that there is a viable and solid opposition with democractic values that can sustain and run the country. Second, the regime change must take place by the will of people in a political approach and not through military operations or promotion of civil war.
Although Gadhafi was a dictator, but he brought much wealth and success for his people who were enjoying free health insurance and free education as well as receiving share of the oil wealth. The only problem was that they could not participate in the politics of the country, otherwise they were enjoying many benefits. In fact Gadhafi rose the educational level of the entire country.
Although Saddam was a ruthless dictator, but he gave much freedom to the people. Women enjoyed freedom that was rare in an Islamic country. The health and educational level in Iraq was increased drastically and he helped to modernize the country. Saddam ran a non-secular government.
Syrian people were enjoying economic prosperity, but with little political participation, the so called Arab Spring did not work well in Syria and the West miscalculated the result of Arab spring in Libya and Syria.
In Iraq and Libya the dictators were removed, but the country sank into a deep and horrific situation where anarchy and killing are rampant. In Syria the Assad regime is still in power, but the country is devastated and people fleeing the countries in rows.
Worst of all ISIS was borne. A group that does not understand humanity and its only goal is to terrorize the population into submission. If one does not submit to ISIS, the he/she is killed in the worst way. Those who are fighting ISIS, if captured, then beheading or by other horrific and barbaric manner was will await them.
Now the US and Europeans have decided to fight ISIS by using drones. These drones and attack by air is also back firing, as many innocent civilians are being killed which add fuel to the fire and give the ISIS a fantastic excuse to bring the populations to their side. Also it gives them an excuse to recruit more people specially the young Moslems from the Western Europe and the USA.
