US foreign policy has been dominated by the simplistic concept that the enemy of my enemy is my friend with no understanding of subtlety. That concept does not hold true. ISIS finds its roots in Wahabism which has kept Saudi Arabia conservative and the house of Saud in power for 200 years, theirs is an uneasy alliance, but since the women are the ones who suffer in Saudi Arabia it has been perpetuated. I don't think our diplomats in the 1940s understood any of this when they were carving up the post WWII world...back then the foreign service exam focused on americana, like who won the 1959 world series, promotion within the service was on a who you knew basis...fast forward to the fall of the Soviet Union and I don't see our foreign service as any better informed or aware of the subtle....I do think that they fully understood what jin they were letting out of the bottle with Sadam and that US oligarchs' greed has cost the US lives, limbs and reputation. I believe that those same oligarchs would make the same decision again today. In fact, the conservative politicians who are in their pay are saying that they would. So long as the other side is willing to enslave and sell women, there will be men to fight. ISIS speaks to the most base thing in some men's nature. It does not signify something holy in any sense of the word but by insisting that they pray before they rape, they try to pass it off as religion. In the US we have shock jocks advocating slavery, and women being branded as property. I am saddened by the idea that slavery which never really disappeared is on the rise again. So long as we dehumanize any portion of the human race we are all in trouble. The really simple question is, would you want to be sold and your life be effectively over? It really doesn't matter who you allow to be enslaved today, so long as the institution exists, you might be the unlucky one tomorrow. We really have no effing clue to how to deal with someone like Putin and his foreign=toxic argument.