Sunni insurgents led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have emerged a formidable challenge for US President Barack Obama in particular. Surprisingly, for the outsiders the US trained and armed Iraqi troops abandoned their posts without putting up a fight. Apparently, they lacked motivation due to sectarian tensions and absence of trust in the government they saw as exclusionist and corrupt.
Undoubtedly major part of the blame for what has been going on in that unfortunate country lies squarely on the US for its invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Aside from invading the country on false pretexts, the Bush administration dissolved the Iraqi Army and purged the bureaucracy of people associated with the ruling Baath party, destroying in the process the state structure and rendering hundreds of thousands jobless and powerless. When the occupation forces left, Iraq was a broken country mired in relentless sectarian violence and ruled by an inept government, which refused to share power with the Sunnis - the country's traditional rulers. No wonder, a majority of the insurgents fighting alongside ISIS are disaffected Sunni tribesmen. Many of the former officers and soldiers of the disbanded Iraqi army too are helping the rebels.