I have to say something after reading some of today's headlines otherwise I might die from laughing so hard at the current state of US mideast policy that is so convoluted and stupid it makes the political intrigues of Game of Thrones look idyllic and straightforward by comparison.

OK try to stay with me because this is gonna sound about as nonsensical as a meth tweaker dictating his thoughts during a 4 AM fever dream to a deaf-mute secretary who is tripping on acid.

The US in 2003 invades Iraq, deposes and allows to be executed Saddam Hussein, and has now spent the last 11 years rigging elections, propping up the Maliki government which is nearly as brutal Saddam's was, and attempting to quell a civil war against said brutal puppet. Now the US has withdrawn most of its major forces (leaving only small garrison's like those in the Vatican sized palatial embassy in Baghdad) at the request of the Maliki government which has allied itself with the last major strategic opponent of the US, Iran.

Iran and the US have been on unfriendly terms since the CIA and MI6 overthrew the democratically elected Mosaddegh leading to the Shah's reign of terror. In response, US hostages were taken during the Iranian Revolution and the US supplied frenemy Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War and has strong-armed most of the rest of the world into economically isolating Iran ever since. The US and Israel have been waging a covert war with Iran with both sides sending arms and other support to terror groups aligned against their opponents. The US and Israel have also been threatening open war on Iran for about 20 years (the US going so far as to encircle Iran with military bases and posts) on the false pretense of destroying Iran's nuclear weapons program, something the very same CIA and Mossad that are waging the covert war have said unequivocally hasn't existed since 2003. Still, both nuclear armed powers continue their saber-rattling, both going so far as to say a preemptive nuclear strike is "on the table" (and this includes our current Nobel Peace Prize winning president). Their latest attempt at undermining Iran is their manufactured civil war in Syria, Iran's greatest regional ally, frenemy of the US, and rival to Israel. This brings us to ISIS (aka ISIL).

ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is an combined Sunni-Arabic nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist group that seeks to create a new state along the lines of Kurdistan to unite Sunni Muslims from the banks of the Tigris to the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean and undo the colossal harm done by the artificial national boundaries drawn by England and France when they carved up the defunct Ottoman Empire (for more lessons on poorly drawn borders and external imperialist meddling see the continent of Africa). ISIS has existed for several years as an ally of Al-Qaeda, a group whose existence was made possible with help from the CIA and which was used in combination with the Taliban to wage a proxy war against the Soviet Union. After the defeat of the Soviets, Al-Qaeda turned on the US primarily for its involvement in crimes against the Muslim world like the starving to death 500,000 Iraqi children via the sanctions imposed after the Gulf War (NOT, TO BE TOTALLY CLEAR, BECAUSE THEY JUST HATE US AND OUR "FREEDOM"). After 9/11 the US declared our former allies to be terrorists and spent the next 10 years hunting some of them down. In 2011, following the supposedly spontaneous demonstrations across the Arab world in what is referred to as the “Arab Spring” the US began funneling money, arms, and intelligence to various militias and "rebel" groups in Libya where they deposed and murdered Muamahr Qaddafi (Something presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton laughed about as that country descended into a chaotic bloodbath without its tyrannical but nevertheless stabilizing dictator). Many of these groups claimed direct connections to Al-Qaeda and pledged allegiance to said US frenemy and the US continued to support them. The same situation has played out in Syria only this time Russia and China, seeing the charade for what it was, refused to allow NATO to help depose an ally and thus help solidify US hegemony further.

Lacking the approval to intervene directly, the US has continued to supply the anti-Assad forces along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, and Israel. The most effective of these forces are those who claim to be aligned with the same Al-Qaeda terror network the US claims to be hunting in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and elsewhere around the world. This additional funding and supplying has helped ISIS grow very strong and to start accomplishing its objectives.

Now we get to the really weird part:
It appears the bulk of ISIS's funding is coming from US ally and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia. While ISIS has been waging war in Syria, its biggest target recently has been Iraq, which the US claims as an ally and is paying to prop up, but Shia-majority Iraq is also unofficially allied with Shia-dominated Iran (despite the Iran-Iraq war in which the US helped Saddam murder over a million Iranians), an enemy and war target of the US. As Iraq's US trained, supplied and equipped army disintegrates, Iran is sending in support to its ally while the US is contemplating doing the same. If the US does intervene again it will be fighting alongside enemy Iran to save crappy puppet ally Iraq against ISIS (which it is partially responsible for creating) which is supported by major regional US ally and oil supplier Saudi Arabia to whom the US sends billions in foreign aid money every year.

It's hard to know whether US planners intended to create so much chaos (no doubt they intended to create SOME), and frankly that seems like it would be giving them way too much credit. I think the more likely explanation is that they waded into pool of gasoline, intending just to set off a few firecrackers, and instead had the whole water park blow up in their faces.