Former NATO commander admits failed Middle East policy led to ISIS

Donald Trump has been ridiculed by the usual suspects (= Democrats and lamestream media) for saying that the policies of President 0 and Secretary of State Shrillery Clinton were wrong, and contributed to the rise of ISIS. He was not wrong, but should have pointed other fingers at previous administrations, including those of Bush II and Clinton I. See "Who really 'founded' ISIS?", WWW 14/8/16.

Support for the argument that the whole Middle East mess originates in bumbling and fumbling American foreign policy comes from a surprising source -- Major-General (Ret.) Dave Fraser, who in 2006 commanded both the Canadian task force and the US-led military alliance's expanded mission to extend the authority of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

Speaking to Canadian Press in an interview to mark the 10th anniversary of the Canadian combat deployment into Kandahar, Maj-Gen. Fraser said the West (read: the USA and its "coalition of the willing") made a mistake deposing the Taliban regime in the aftermath of 9/11 and should have simply trained its guns on al-Qaeda.

"We thought, naively, that regime change was the solution to the problem," he said. "Looking backwards, I would have actually left the Taliban government in power and said [to them]: 'Stay out of the way. We're here to find al-Qaeda. And as long as you stay out of the way, the special forces will go in there, they will do what is necessary to get al-Qaeda and we will leave. Had we done that, we wouldn't be where we are today."

At the time, Maj-Gen. Fraser added, no-one seemed to appreciate how profound the power vacuum was. The West "created for ourselves a 30- or 40-year problem" in not only Afghanistan, he said, but throughout the Middle East.

What solutions do Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton propose for the problem of ISIS? Mr Trump says we have to hit them hard(er), but doesn't specify how or where. Mrs Clinton says she will continue Obama's policies, including making nice with the Islamists and appealing to reason and the brotherhood of man. Those "answers" don't exactly inspire confidence... at least not in me! See "Why Trump and Clinton are wrong on ISIS", WWW 16/8/16. In the last sentence of that post, you'll find my eminently sensible warning to both candidates.