Is the Invasion of Iraq Truly the Cause of Terror?

In 2003, March 20th the United States in alliance largely with the United Kingdom launched an invasion of a small and underdeveloped country by the name of Iraq. This assault would continue for 42 days until the government of this insignificant buffer zone between the cold war of Iran and Saudi Arabia would be overthrown by the largest military force on Earth.

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April 2003: Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein's statue is demolished. ~ picture from "The Guardian"

We're all confident that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake on a national and international level. Even in the aftermath of the largest terrorist attack in America history, we saw no sympathy from the rest of the world nor the people who strongly opposed the war within even though largely silenced by the corporate media and pro-war agenda that was used to indoctrinate the public. The prior contention of this move is now considered one of the greatest disgraces in modern American politics, but is it really the greatest folly of the 21st century? Let's speculate;

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi establishes a "caliphate" in Mosul, Iraq on June 2014 ~ picture from "CNN"

Yes, we jumped quite far, but we're not even going to mention the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the fractured Al-Qaeda network not even the fall of Libya in North Africa in this article. No, the coalitions strategic focus today is certainly the now failing but once powerful regime of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. And the question today is; did our involvement in Iraq truly create the notorious "power vacuum" we attribute to the chaos that is the Middle East? Let's highlight an instance where instability struck the region without any US intervention or involvement.

Greatly unsuccessful conflict waged by Iraq into Iranian territory ~ picture from "Learning-History"

After a US oil trade grossed the nation roughly $33 billion dollars in a swift oil boom, the Iraqi government had gained enough money to subsidize their endeavours. At the time Saddam saw unrest within the Shia population over which he largely governed, Shia Islam being the majority if not entirety of the Iranian people Saddam believed the pesky neighbors were largely responsible for creating the ideology of these groups who saw the usurpatious sunni government for what it is.

To say the least, many miscalculations ensued on the Iraqi front, retreat and failure would surely continue for the wars entirety. Iran largely acted defensively while Iraq struggled to hold territory on the outskirts of what's often referred to as "The Iranian Fortress". After a hard 2 years, the offensive front was rolled back once they exhausted all of their resources and a 6-year struggle that followed the war efforts.

This is still today considered the largest conflict between two "developing nations" in human history, now don't for a moment assume that Iraq and Iran are even in the same league as far as development. For instance, India is still considered a devolving nation, they currently own a large arsenal of modern nuclear weapons and the Indian MARCOS are considered some of the most highly trained special forces on the planet.

The moral of this story in history is to give an example. Iraq is a weak nation, sandwiched together by two countries; Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Both of which have in the past and currently fund Sunni and Shia militants and terrorists in the many proxy wars they've shared among themselves in semblance to the cold war of the USA and Soviet Russia, much like the US-backed Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, which is now a country riddled with insurgent influence. This has been one very big indicator that the superior military prowess of the United States was not what was required to cause the failing state we hear about in the news and see featured in ISIS propaganda.

Map describing the events of the 2011 Arab Spring ~ picture from "The Triangle"

In conclusion, there are far too many volatile events that have happened in the Middle East in recent history to be confident in saying that the United States is responsible for the instability we are witnessing today. With the Arab spring and the schism between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims, the likely hood of the Iraqi government not fracturing from heavy unrest, and the inevitable Syrian civil war which spawned many extremist groups whom would very likely have poured into North-West Iraq as a backdrop to some degree, making violent clashes with the Kurdish a likely event.

Iraq alone was the home to the oldest civilization in recorded human history that lived between the Tigris and Euphrates, all three Abrahamic religions were founded in the Middle East and there still remain some of the holiest places on the Earth, to some of the most devout and widespread religions. Yes, it is a land of constant friction between different ideologies, and ethnic groups that have lived together, peacefully and in protest.