Better a conspiracy theorist in the White House than a conspirator.
History is a messy process. It is intellectually lazy to blame the rise of ISIS solely on the Obama administration's regime change policies in Syria and Libya, or on the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.
There are a multiple number of factors that have contributed to the rise of ISIS: 1) Saudi, Qatari, and UAE funding, mobilizing, and arming of terrorists that are either linked to ISIS or end up joining the group; 2) Turkey's role as a logistics hub in the transnational Jihadist network; 3) The failure of the political elite in Baghdad to create a socially stable country and discourage Sunnis from supporting ISIS when they invade their cities; 4) Assad and his allies' commitment to total victory instead of political compromise which has prolonged the war and given an excuse for foreign terrorists to go to the country to fight a religious war; 5) The recruitment of young and naive Jihadists in mosques all around the world to go and fight infidels and Shiites in Syria; 6) Maintaining a false narrative of the war in Syria and the clandestine origins of ISIS with the use of state-directed propaganda on mainstream television, particularly stations like Al-Jazeera; 7) The training of leaders and groups in places like Jordan by the CIA, MI6, and Mossad who later join ISIS out of ideological loyalty or for practical reasons.
Mr. Trump is doing the world a great service by pointing out that ISIS didn't come out of a well in some cave, and that U.S. leaders share responsibility in its creation and growth along with other leaders, but it is not good nor fair to simplify history and dumb things down for political points. Clinton's record is bad enough, there is no need to exaggerate to beat her.
The ISIS problem won't be solved by pointing at Obama and saying he did it, or pointing at Assad and saying he did it.
Title: Trump: Obama, Clinton co-founded ISIS. Source: USA TODAY. Date Published: August 11, 2016.
