ISIS or “the Islamic State” is currently tearing across northern Iraq and ripping into Syria, while making headlines with their blatant disregard for human dignity. Expectedly, many people want to know how ISIS came to power or where they got their weapons from. Well, the answer to that is complex, but the unintended consequences of American foreign policy plays an important impact both in how ISIS came to be and how they got their weapons.

“Unintended Consequences”. It’s a phrase one will encounter multiple times if you take the time to research ISIS. Fareed Zakaria cautions that extending US bombings into Syria will lead to “unintended consequences”, journalist Kevin Boyd warns that, “foreign policy decisions often have unintended consequences”, and extending arms to Osama Bin Laden in the early 90’s definitely had some “unintended consequences”.

Back in the early to mid 2000s, the American government was responsible for the armament and training of the Iraqi government in order to bring down the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. Recently, a moderate amount of the weapons ISIS has been able to acquire has come from capturing armaments held by the Iraqi government forces they have trampled over. Other weapons have supposedly come from Turkey and rebel forces in Syria. According to Jabbar Yawar (secretary-general of the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs), “[ISIS] took the weapons of the 2^nd and 3^rd [Iraqi army] divisions in Mosul,the 4^th division in Salah al Din, the 12^th division in the areas near Kirkuk, and another division in Diyala”. Weapons left behind included humvees, trucks, rockets, artillery pieces, ammunition, and even a helicopter. It needs to be stated that most of this hardware that was left behind is ancient, and some of it is even not functioning. That being said,some of it is. All the hardware that is functioning is being put to use against the citizens of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, as well as journalists and those who bring humanitarian aid to the area. The equipment that the American tax payers paid for in order to protect these people is now being used to hurt them. In the most recent twist of irony the United States has announced airstrikes against the members of the Islamic State. To get it straight, the American government is now spending money to bomb equipment the American taxpayers paid out of pocket for.

This is not to say that the United States and other governments should never be allowed to participate in foreign affairs and to intervene. Many would argue that the level of devastation in foreign nations necessitates aid from across the country at times; such as the Holocaust, which is difficult to argue against. Yet, there seems to be a persistent theme in American foreign policy as of late which is completely ignoring the long term and looking just at the short term aims. Expectedly, this produces the “unintended consequences” we keep hearing about. As America continues to take a stand against the evils of ISIS, we must be careful to remember that every action will create waves in ways we never considered. Surely the United States CIA did not expect the mujahideen freedom fighters from the Afghani Soviet war, whom they supplied roughly $20 billion from 1979-1989, to form terrorist groups and then bomb our country only 12 years later. Our short term aims overshadow our fear of what could come in the long term. When America acts, it must act with prudence, and carefully consider who we supply weapons to and how they will behave with what we give them in 20-30 years, as we have been unable to do in the past. Perhaps, we can make a push towards peace in the Middle East a long-term goal instead of having short stints of an artificial peace.