“So it's our fault”: It is the result of our politic. So, whose fault is it? We impose the leaders we choose on them; we help these strong men (dictators only they are on the other side) in selling them weapons, training of their secret police, and help them in repressing any leftist/unionists opposition, leaving the field open to the Priests. So who is responsible for the choice to help the Shah, Mubarak and others?

“our fault for causing another regime in Iraq” Yes. It was our choice to divide Iraq following the religious fracture. We ignore the deadly struggle between Shia and Sunnites. We ignore the fact that Persia and Arabs are fighting for centuries. We impose the structures of the new Iraqi government (Constitution), so don’t blame the Iraqi for the result of your choices, as far as I remember, their opinion was not requested.

“It's not the fault of the people who are currently acting in Syria, Iraq, Iran and whatnot, since they're incapable of acting by themselves, but are always and will forever be the blameless victims of western decisions. Nor is it the fault of the Saudis and Turks and whoever else have directly funded and continue to directly fund ISIS.” You should re-read what I wrote. I think you got it wrong.

“In short: there's a 10 year gap in your chronology of events.” In short, I summarized it. The problem is the representation of the USA/UK victory was enough humiliating to brake a national pride by itself. You can’t ask to defend a country when you destroy the country. The insurrection could have been controlled if the politico-religious-ethnic background better understood, or, perhaps, just not ignored. I don’t believe the US and UK didn’t have enough specialists who could and probably did warn them about the situation.

“Iraqi Kurdistan is actually one of the few governments in the region that Turkey is friendly” You having a laugh! I was in Iraq when the Turkish bombers attacked the valley just of the other side or the mountain and helped in evacuating the injured…

“1) decades of Baathist rule which actively exploited ethnic tensions to justify its authority
2) meddling of neighbouring states, essentially this whole quagmire is a proxy war between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on one hand and Iran on the other” I agree, and I will had food shortage due to climate changes so internal migrations Assad’s regime couldn’t help, growing unemployment, social crisis…

“Brenus' point was to establish a connection between the rise of ISIS and the decision to dismantle the army 10 years earlier” No, it was not my point. My point was and is, and the army being only one process, the dismantling of Iraq as country (administration, privatisation of the natural resources, private mercenaries, etc) de facto broke the little national unity of the country. The rise of ISIL (ISIS) was favoured by it.