Did the invasion of Iraq cause the ISIS crisis?

[Teddy Pollins]

I was deliberating of late why did this ISIS crisis happen?
Today, Tony Blair - former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom - posted an essay to his personal website wherein he rejects the 'bizarre' claims that the invasion of Iraq caused the crisis, but is he right?
By ISIS crisis I mean the fighting back of ISIS militants by the Iraqi government forces and a medley of militias.
What will aware participants say?

 

[Gadawg73]

Saddam Hussein as bad a mad man blood thirsty killer he was had the religious crazies in check and Iraq was a secular government run by a dictator. Our military and allies advised against invading. One of the worst foreign policy decisions in the last 50 years. Against the advice of the military we propped up a Shia only government that immediately imprisoned all the former Baathists and Sunni military leaders. ISIS military structure is almost all former Baathist military leaders under Saddam that were broken out of a prison attack. Obama's lame amateur hour foreign policy has made it worse but the Bush administration fucked it all up with the 2003 invasion. We were warned.

 

[boedicca]

No. The Islamo-fascism problem in the Middle East has been brewing for a long, long time.

 

[Porker]

Saddam Hussein as bad a mad man blood thirsty killer he was had the religious crazies in check and Iraq was a secular government run by a dictator. Our military and allies advised against invading. One of the worst foreign policy decisions in the last 50 years. Against the advice of the military we propped up a Shia only government that immediately imprisoned all the former Baathists and Sunni military leaders. ISIS military structure is almost all former Baathist military leaders under Saddam that were broken out of a prison attack. Obama's lame amateur hour foreign policy has made it worse but the Bush administration fucked it all up with the 2003 invasion. We were warned.

But our democrats in Congress wanted the invasion and URGED it to happen...or have you conveniently forgotten?

 

[Teddy Pollins]

No. The Islamo-fascism problem in the Middle East has been brewing for a long, long time.

What do you mean? Facts or more information, please.
As I see,
the answer is more complicated than the invasion caused it. I would place a lot of blame on Bush and Blair for failing after the invasion.
The occupation was a fiasco, democracy and stability do not spontaneously appear particularly in a country where power structures had been controlled and centred around one man for decades.

 

[EricJ]

Not totally. But it sure didn't help, and likely caused things to fall apart sooner rather than later.

 

[Donald Polish]

What did America change in Iraq? If we attribute ISIL/ISIS to the invasion of Iraq by way of a weakened Iraqi military, we attribute the entire Arab Spring to the invasion of Iraq and the lack of the massive Iraqi Sunni bloc supporting fellow dictatorships.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I...

ISIS is evil, plain and simple. The US toppling Saddam leads to genocide? What kind of f'ing logic is that? Read the f'ing Quran and see what is says and stop trying to talk your way out of a paper bag.

 

[Porker]

What did America change in Iraq? If we attribute ISIL/ISIS to the invasion of Iraq by way of a weakened Iraqi military, we attribute the entire Arab Spring to the invasion of Iraq and the lack of the massive Iraqi Sunni bloc supporting fellow dictatorships.

I would guess that Saddam Hussein is no longer the resident dictator.