ISIS . . . the monster they created
A good summary of the Middle Eastern problems. An excerpt:
It is no accident that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, performed the highly pretentious and very Hollywood-esque act of declaring himself Caliph. Nothing plays on the vulnerabilities of the Western imagination like the phantom of the return of the Muslim hordes united behind their Caliph to lay siege at the gates of Vienna once again. But as with the Wahhabi Ikhwan movement in the 1920s, which had to be slaughtered by the British air force with the full support of Ibn Saud (r. 1926-1953), the ISIS gamble badly backfired, and the Saudis and their allies ultimately found themselves threatened by the monster they created.
For all practical effects, the White House's hands were forced, but to the dismay of the Saudis and their allies, the White House still insisted on not re-sending troops into Iraq, and reportedly, the removal and exile of Bandar was made a condition for the commencement of the air campaign and the escalation of covert operations against ISIS.