The whole situation with Iraq and the uprising of ISIS can be attributed to the U.S. War on Terror and failed attempts at establishing democracy in the Middle East. The truth of the matter is, the G.W. Bush  administration had no idea what they were doing when they decided to invade Iraq under the pretense of ridding Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction: Iraq had none, and we destroyed the Iraqi way of life over this lie. Iraqis may have suffered under Saddam Hussein, but at the very least, the region was stable and extremists were rare. After the American invasion, civilian deaths likely skyrocketed because law and order were thrown out as well.