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always trump an imposed political structure, especially the Western- exported concept of the nation-state. Following World War II, as European colonialism waned, the US assumed a more significant role in the Middle East. US foreign policy was driven primarily by oil interests, the protection of Israel and resistance to Soviet aggression. To prevent the region from dissolving in sectarian conflict, the US established a series of autocracies. The campaign included restoring the Shah of Iran to the throne after the democratically elected Mosaddegh regime nationalized oil fields, and supporting for the Baathist overthrow of the Qasim government in Iraq, which gave rise to Saddam Hussein. Following the end of the Cold War, America’s foreign policy gravitated toward nation building, and the widespread promotion of democracy and human rights abroad. However, an iron fisted policies the strongmen imposed to remain in power conflicted with the moral endeavor to curate democracy afar. Hence, America’s crusade undermined its original goals by threatening the same autocratic regimes the US had helped establish. As the leaders the West once championed are toppled one by one, the boot-prints of Western Power are clearly visible. Regimes once supported by the US have fallen, marking the failure of embrace and abandon. In Egypt, Mubarak was in, then deserted. In Iraq, Hussein was in, then deposed. In Libya, Gaddafi was in, then overthrown with US support. In Syria with Assad, it was the same scenario. The instability created by contradictory Western interests has invited far worse atrocities by the new regimes than the crimes perpetrated by the previous order. The massacres in Syria and Iraq are obvious, bitter examples. Filling the void are a multitude of warring sectarian groups from ISIS to Syrian rebels. The factions each generally fight under their own flag of political Islam. The rise of Islamic factions battling for territory is a HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031719