Letter to the Editor: Setting the record straight on ISIS

In current politics, one opinion claims that President Obama’s withdrawal of the U.S. military created ISIS.

Were perceptions true, we would not need facts for anything.

Historical facts, however, show that ISIS had a history of name changing before Presidents Bush and Obama.

First, ISIS began in the late 1990s as a terrorist group to overthrow the Jordanian government. After President George W. Bush invaded Iraq in December of 2003, the group was named “Al-Qaida in Iraq.”

Second, after the U.S. killed the group’s leader in June of 2006, the name changed to ISI (Islamic State in Iraq) in October of 2006.

President Bush signed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in December of 2008, giving U.S. troops legal protections and immunities to ensure they did not end up in Iraqi jails. SOFA clearly spelled out the withdrawal of all U.S. soldiers by December 31, 2011.

By December of 2011, the Iraqis wanted American troops to stay AND be subject to Iraqi law. Since it was contrary to U.S. policy to allow foreign control of U.S. soldiers, President Obama withdrew the troops according to SOFA as signed by President Bush in 2008.

Then, in mid-2012, ISI was called ISIS and aligned itself with al-Qaida.

The name ISIS will probably change again, given its history.

Even though Michel Montaigne, the 16th century French essayist, wrote that “Stubborn and ardent clinging to one’s opinion is the best proof of stupidity,” today we are gentler and kinder with Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s statement, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

Duane Pitts

Moses Lake