"Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror." "This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world." "The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action." "We will take whatever action is necessary to defend our freedom and our security." "It is not knowable how long that conflict would last." "It could last six days, six weeks, I doubt six months." "I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators." "Woman:" "As the Americans celebrated, a rebellion against U.S. occupation was brewing." "Sunni and Shia began to fight each other, and Iraq became fertile territory for the Americans' greater enemy." "Woman 2:" "The black flag of al-Qaeda was this week raised over two Iraqi cities, which are now under the control of Jihadists bent on creating a new Islamic nation." "Al-Qaeda is diminished over where it was, say, certainly several years ago." "An American intelligence official told CNN today that ISIS is and I just want to quote them," ""now a credible alternative to al-Qaeda."" "(men shouting) Allahu Akbar!" "Man:" "The extremist group made important new gains this weekend in Syria." "Man 2:" "And in Iraq, ISIS now controls 80% of Anbar province just to the west of Baghdad." "And the terrorist group is still advancing." "♪ ♪" "(speaking Arabic)" "So right now, there are many countries and different groups fighting against ISIS, and they're saying they will defeat ISIS." "What do think will happen?" "(man speaking Arabic)" "(speaking Arabic)" "Anderson:" "Since the U.S. withdrawal, the Islamic State swept across Iraq gaining control of almost a third of the country, including its second-largest city, Mosul." "There are now three major front lines between Iraq and the territory controlled by the Islamic State." "We visited all of them." "This post is the dividing line between the Anbar fighters and ISIS." "They've just pointed out a flag, which is four, 500 meters away." "An ISIS flag." "(distant booming)" "Is that mortars?" "(gunfire)" "(men shouting)" "These local tribal fighters are all that's stopping ISIS from getting to Baghdad." "So, this corner is this corner here?" "Yes." "Anderson:" "The threat from ISIS snipers was very real." "Only three months earlier this video was recorded during a similar firefight." "Everyone was firing wildly and looking like they were enjoying themselves, and then suddenly, someone got hit in the head by a sniper and killed." "They said that was right here." "(speaks Arabic)" "(speaking English)" "Anderson:" "Yeah." "(speaking Arabic)" "(man 2 speaking Arabic)" "Do you think you can hold on here?" "(man 3 speaks English)" "When you say short what do you mean?" "Are you close to running out?" "(man speaks Arabic)" "There's a tree line about 250 meters in front of these sand bags." "That's the house were they said the sniper was." "So they are saying that now they are going to use a tank to fire at the position where the sniper was." "(speaks Arabic)" "If a mortar lands now, you'll lose half of your men." "Everyone's together." "To find out how Iraq went from mission accomplished to the Islamic State, we spoke to Ryan Crocker, one of the most decorated diplomats in U.S. history." "He worked alongside General David Petraeus during the worst years of the war, and was appointed by President George W. Bush to try to turn things around." "No one would deny that Saddam was a brutal dictator." "He killed hundreds of thousands of people in unimaginable ways." "Is life in Iraq for many Iraqis now worse than it was then?" "Iraq today exceeded my worst nightmares." "I think all one has to do is look at the casualty counts." "As many as died in Saddam's prisons or at the hands of his death squads, far more are dying each day in Iraq now." "As bad as things were under Saddam, they were never-- they were never this bad." "Anderson:" "The invasion of Iraq was supposed to lead to a democratic and pluralistic state in the Middle East:" "a shining example to its neighbors and a country that posed no threat to the United States." "What it actually achieved was the exact opposite." "And in your view, is the U.S. more likely to face a terrorist attack from Iraqi soil today than it was under Saddam Hussein?" "I never saw a terrorist threat from Iraq." "Now there is." "(men shouting) Allahu Akbar!" "Anderson:" "The greatest of those threats now comes from ISIS, who were able to take huge areas of Sunni-dominated Iraq with astonishing ease." "Though they had much greater numbers, the U.S.-trained-and-supplied Iraqi army crumbled as ISIS advanced, often leaving huge amounts of weapons and vehicles behind as they fled." "Crocker:" "When we pulled out, and when Iraqi politics increasingly became denominated in sectarian terms, that was a very fertile ground for the Islamic State." "Anderson:" "Since the Invasion of Iraq, the problems there have increasingly become a conflict between Sunni and Shiite, the two main sects of Islam." "This has been exacerbated by Iraq's mixed population and its geographical position between the two competing regional powers," "Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran." "Crocker:" "It shouldn't have been to hard to see that this highly tenacious al-Qaeda element would feed on an environment in which sectarian policies from Baghdad would lead to a highly disaffected Sunni community and a great recruiting ground on the one hand," "and a demoralized population that would not resist them on the other." "Anderson:" "Today, following almost 13 years of war," "Iraq is effectively divided into three separate states, divided along sectarian or ethnic lines:" "Sunni, Shiite and Kurd." "80% of Anbar Province is currently under ISIS control." "The only way in to the few areas that have yet to fall is across a narrow and temporary bridge." "Because of the ongoing violence, over 3 million people have fled their homes and many are now living in makeshift camps." "They're saying there are 250 families living here." "Mostly from Fallujah." "And each tent is housing between eight and 15 people." "(man speaking foreign language)" "Anderson:" "The main force stopping ISIS taking over completely here are these Sunni tribal fighters, who were supposed to be getting support from Baghdad after the U.S. withdrawal." "There are 600 volunteers here preparing to join the front line." "So we are on our way to see a volunteer force." "Just volunteered." "Apparently they get some very basic training." "No salary, and they haven't even got weapons." "So this is not Iraqi army." "This is just local people who have to fight ISIS." "(speaking foreign language)" "These men have to share guns to do target practice." "600 men, they've got..." "six old AK-47s." "All volunteer army." "No supplies from the U.S. or from the Iraqi government." "They're saying that every male who can fight is volunteering to fight." "That their youngest volunteer is 17." "I suspect he's probably younger than that." "And their oldest is 73." "(speaking foreign language)" "These recruits will join the Sunni tribal fighters who were part of the Anbar Awakening, when former insurgents were persuaded to join U.S. forces in the fight against al-Qaeda." "This was one of the most successful efforts of the entire war, and these men were supposed to be rewarded for the role they played, but they were largely abandoned." "With nowhere left to turn, they initially welcomed the rise of ISIS." "(speaking foreign language)" "Anderson:" "At this front line, a small number of Iraqi government troops had been sent to Anbar to help, but nowhere near enough." "(speaking foreign language)" "What are they like as fighters?" "(man speaks foreign language)" "That's ISIS in those trees?" " (explosions) - (man speaks)" "So there's an armored vehicle in the kind of no man's land between here that's been blown up and burnt." "They said they attacked it with an Abrams tank." "So you've got Anbar Awakening tribal fighters, and some Iraqi Army fighters, using American-supplied tanks to attack ISIS fighters in American-supplied and then stolen armored vehicles." "There's fighting here almost every day, and with such little support, the tribes have to make due with whatever they can get their hands on." "I was introduced to a man called "The Lion of Amiriyat,"" "who is the main weapons maker for this front." "(speaking foreign language)" "So this is it?" "This is your workshop?" "(speaks foreign language)" "So, who did this belong to?" "(translator speaks)" "Who attacked it?" "The Americans?" "(translator speaks foreign language)" "(translator speaks English)" "Oh, so these used to be Saddam's weapons?" "(translator speaks)" "Wow." "These are the weapons of mass destruction." "(speaks foreign language)" "(laughter)" "Anderson:" "Shortly after we left," "Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, also fell to ISIS." "Having failed to get support from either Washington or Baghdad, many Anbar tribal leaders declared their allegiance to ISIS." "At the end of 2015, the Iraqi Army, aided by U.S. airstrikes and Special Forces retook Ramadi." "We interviewed a captured ISIS fighter." "He claimed that recent gains by the Iraqi government are meaningless." "(speaking Arabic)" "Do you think ISIS will win?" "In northeast Iraq, another group is fighting ISIS." "The Peshmerga are the army of Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous state within Iraq established after the first Gulf War." "So we're on our way to another front line with ISIS." "One of the many front lines." "This one manned by the Kurdish Peshmerga." "And before we've even got there, there's black smoke on the horizon." "The Peshmerga have so far been successful against ISIS." "(speaking Kurdish)" "Starting as a resistance fighter against Saddam," "Commander Dler has been a Peshmerga for 33 years." "He showed as an example of the dangers they face on the front line every day." "The Peshmerga have had real success against ISIS recently, but they are getting no support from the outside world." "They haven't been paid salaries from Baghdad in over a year, and they said America is not giving them anything like the equipment and the weapons that they need." "Like the Anbar tribes, the Peshmerga have to defend themselves with whatever they can get their hands on, often constructing war machines from ordinary parts and vehicles." "These bombproof trucks and Humvees were stolen from ISIS, who stole them from the Iraqi government, who were supplied by the Americans." "(explosion)" "There's an airstrike in the nearby village, which is controlled by ISIS." "You can still hear the planes above now." "So this is the closest position to the ISIS positions?" "(Dler speaking)" "Here's one little piece of decoration there." "A sign made out of bullets saying "Kurdish Peshmerga."" "While this is all good news for the fight against ISIS, it could be bad news for the future of Iraq as a state." "The Peshmerga fight under their own flag, not the flag of Iraq." "So any success they have further destabilizes the region." "Are you fighting to defeat ISIS now and for Iraq, or are you fighting to defeat ISIS and then have a free independent Kurdistan?" "Anderson:" "Masrour Barzani, the Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council agrees." "For 100 years they've tried to make this country work." "It doesn't." "Because it is built on the wrong foundations." "And is it now time to admit, or accept, that Iraq is now three separate states?" "Well admitting it or not, this is the reality." "Iraq has been divided, practically." "If you look, Shias are controlling the Shiite areas," "ISIS is controlling most of the Sunni areas, and Kurds are controlling the Kurdish areas." "It is a failed state." "And if everybody wants to create their own force, that is a reinforcement of dividing the country." "So, this is Daesh-- Daesh here?" "Daesh here?" "And this as well?" "So just at the bottom of this small hill is the village." "And that's controlled by ISIS and it's barely two kilometers away." "Several SUVs or pickups driving around and they are saying they are all ISIS, there's no sign of civilians." "How many fighters are there?" "Do you know?" "Do you have any idea?" "So for the time being this is the new border between Kurdistan and the so-called Islamic state." "♪ ♪" "Everyone is getting ready for their night shift, 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM is apparently the most likely time they are going to get attacked, so no one is allowed to sleep during those twelve hours." "We've heard about people coming from all over the world, coming back to their homeland, everybody able-bodied it seems has volunteered to come back and help out." "(speaking foreign language)" "Anderson:" "Iraqi Kurdistan has become a sanctuary for many of the minorities whose lives are in danger." "Like this family of Yazidis, a small religious sect who ISIS had attempted to exterminate." "They said they walked eight days through the mountains when they fled ISIS, but I think it's three elderly women, two younger women, one young man, and I don't know, 10, 12 kids," "including several babies, so I don't know how-- how they made the journey." "(speaking Kurdish)" "There's four tents." "Oh, three more kids." "Hello." "So how many people are living here?" "Anderson:" "So they managed to escape ISIS." "They have their lives, but what lives now?" "Here?" "The problems in Iraq today can be traced back to several decisions made at the start of the campaign." "Days after President Bush announced the end of combat operations, he installed L. Paul Bremer, a former diplomat who had never served in the Middle East, to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority." "Within weeks, he announced the disbanding of the Iraqi military, and a process called De-Baathification." "The Baathists were Saddam Hussein's political party." "Nearly everyone who worked for the Iraqi government had to be a member." "Therefore, most of the capable, experienced people running Iraq's government or military were purged." "500,000 active-duty members of the security forces were suddenly fired." "Crocker:" "The de-Baathification campaign fueled the initial anti-coalition insurgency in those years." "It wouldn't take a great stretch of imagination to think that an officer dismissed for no good reason except suspicions about his loyalty is going to say, "I know where I'm going,"" "and wind up in the opposing camp." "Anderson:" "Desperate for an Iraqi Prime Minister who could stem the violence, the U.S. settled on Nouri Al-Maliki, an almost unknown member of one of Iraq's main Shiite opposition groups who'd been living in exile for over 23 years." "This would have a huge effect on U.S. policy, which was supposed to be creating a government to represent all Iraqis irrespective of their creed or ethnicity." "Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who had come of age in a clandestine religious party that was relentlessly pursued, nearly exterminated by Saddam Hussein." "Why is this important?" "As Commander-in-Chief, when he looked at senior field positions in his armed forces, he cared about one thing only:" "loyalty." "The Maliki government used their newfound power, not to unite the country, but to take revenge on the Sunni minority, who had ruled Iraq for decades." "It was a generalized view that if you were Sunni, you were going to have a very, very hard time trying to live in Iraq in the Maliki years." "(men shouting and chanting)" "The sectarian violence spiraled out of control." "Entire areas were purged of Shiites or Sunnis, thousands of Iraqis were killed every month as the country looked to be collapsing." "Exhausted by the bloodshed, when Iraqis turned out to vote in 2010, they voted for the non-sectarian candidate, Ayad Allawi." "But though he won more votes than anyone else, he didn't have enough to form a majority." "Despite his awful record, and his second place finish," "Nouri al-Maliki was allowed another term in office." "To find out what effect this had, we spoke to Ali Khedery, former adviser to five U.S. ambassadors, he was the longest continuously serving American in Iraq." "We were, I believe, this close to strategic victory." "Or at least avoiding strategic defeat." "The Obama White House chose to ignore the election's results." "Nouri al-Maliki became Prime Minister for a second term and drove the country over the cliff." "(men shouting)" "Of all the major events in Iraq," "I'm not sure how well known that is in the U.S." "And yet you're making it sound like that was one of the biggest mistakes of the entire war." "So Bush's original sin was invading in 2003, and Obama's original sin was not respecting the Iraqi election's results or the constitutional process in 2010." "Without any shadow of a doubt." "Anderson:" "We spoke to a Christian family who had fled their home in Mosul about what life was like under the Maliki government." "(speaking Arabic)" "Anderson:" "One of the captured ISIS fighters who we interviewed said the same thing about life under the Maliki government." "And can you explain why you joined?" "(speaking foreign language)" "I understand that for many Iraqis if you were a Christian or a Sunni or a Kurd, life under the Maliki government could be very bad." "I don't understand then joining a group who are beheading people, and burning people to death, and making young girls into slaves?" "I mean the things I've described, they published videos of them doing these things with smiles on their faces." "So if you were freed now, would you go back and join them again?" "We met other refugees who had been lucky to escape ISIS with their lives." "They had fled not from Iraq, but all the way from Syria." "A journey of over 400 miles." "(man speaking foreign language)" "(boy speaking)" "It's incredible standing here, because just on this one street, you've got Yazidi families who have fled ISIS." "At the end of the road here, there are Christians, and then here there's a Kurdish family from Kobane in Syria." "And yet that's just a tiny, tiny hint of how many people's lives have been lost or destroyed." "Another group having success against ISIS are the Shiite militias, who played a major role in the insurgency, killing many U.S. troops." "And then, in the sectarian war, killing many Sunnis." "They maintain close ties to Iran, and are sometimes even commanded by Major General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Quds force, in charge of all foreign military operations." "Since these militias are so closely linked to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, they're also indirectly supplied by the U.S." "The most organized parties happen to be the Shia Islamist parties, who had been created or subsidized by the Iranians since the 1970s, and they took advantage of that investment." "The dividends paid off quite well." "Iraq is more polarized than ever, and Baghdad is falling under an Iranian orbit, which is furthering the polarization of the society, which is strengthening ISIS and radical militant Shia groups like the Iraqi militias." "♪ ♪" "We were able to meet up with one of the most notorious Shiite militias, the Badr Organization, as they were preparing to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS." "We were taken on a tour of towns they had recently recaptured." "So these are all American-supplied, either directly or indirectly." "Humvees, MRAPs." "And we didn't just see U.S.-supplied weaponry, we also saw Iranian weapons on display, and it was clear where the fighters' loyalty lay." "There we met with the leader of the Badr Organization, Hadi Al Amiri." "How confident are you that ISIS will be defeated in Iraq?" "(speaking Arabic)" "While the leaders of these militias were confident in their ability to beat ISIS, the captured fighters we spoke to were not shaken by the threat." "Right now, there are many different groups attacking ISIS, saying they will defeat ISIS." "Anderson:" "Even if he's wrong and the Shiite militias do defeat ISIS, that may not be good news for the future of Iraq." "Hadi Al Amiri in the 1970s was a radical militant Shia Islamist who defected to Iran." "Amiri fought on the Iranian side during the Iran-Iraq war." "His political party, his various allegiances are to Tehran." "In fact, he was videotaped kissing the hand of the Iranian Supreme Leader, who happened to repeatedly vow to destroy America, and Israel and its allies." "The State Department in a cable said that" "Hadi Al Amiri used to kill people using an electric drill on their skulls." "Do you think that's true?" "I can't comment on classified documents or information, but I can tell you is I heard from a wide variety of Iraqi sources that indeed, the Badr Corps and Amiri had a preference for using power drills to kill their victims." "This area has now become known as the killing zone, 'cause anyone that's still here is assumed to be ISIS or an ISIS supporter." "And the civilians who fled-- over 80,000 have fled so far-- who are Sunni, are afraid to come back because they say that these guys just assume they're ISIS because they are Sunni and will kill them." "Khedery:" "The argument that is being made by Washington is that we are not cooperating directly with the militias." "That what we are really doing is we are backing the Iraqi government." "But in reality what's happening is the Iraqi government is fully penetrated by these Iranian-sponsored groups." "And many of them are now in charge of the security services, they're on the front lines with these militias." "They're receiving American weapons, they're receiving American tanks." "They have American air support, they have American diplomatic cover." "So in this case, we are backing the Iranian-commanded Shia militias to defeat ISIS." "But the Iraqi security forces and the Iranian-backed militias are guilty of the same atrocities and war crimes that ISIS is known for." "They are beheading individuals, they are torturing." "And evidence of this emerges every day." "And yet they are receiving billions of dollars of advanced military equipment from the United States." "What you seem to be saying is that not only should we stop financing this and acting as an air force for these people, but we should almost treat them as a very dangerous enemy?" "They are." "A critical mass of the government in Baghdad is a strategic threat to American interests and to allied interest." "If you are leveraging one radical militant Islamist group to defeat another radical militant Islamist group, then what you're going to still end up with is a radical militant Islamist group." "We are creating monsters, and these monsters will come back to haunt us." "(man chanting)" "(man 2 speaking foreign language)" "Anderson:" "These Shiite militias are a sign of Iran's dominance in Iraq today." "I don't have a very sanguine view of the Islamic Republic." "But they're there, they are powerful and they are not irrational." "They can be dealt with, we have dealt with them." "After all, you don't make peace with your friends, you make it with your enemies if peace is to be made." "Iran's influence goes beyond Iraq, to Beirut, Damascus, and Sana'a in Yemen." "All of which has startled its local rival, the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, raising sectarian tensions throughout the region." "And as the international coalition, including the U.S., Britain, and France stepped up their bombing campaign against ISIS in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris, one of the United States' oldest rivals is using the failures in Iraq to take a leading role" "and use it for their own strategic advantage." "(speaking Russian)" "(applause)" "Anderson:" "Former Russian President and current Prime Minister, and Vladimir Putin's right hand man, Dmitry Medvedev sat down and elaborated on Russia's new policy on ISIS." "(speaking Russian)" "But whereas the U.S. and many others are targeting ISIS," "Russia's aim is to remove all opposition to their ally," "President Bashar al-Assad-- a notoriously brutal dictator infamous for using chemical weapons on his own people." "(Medvedev speaking)" "Anderson:" "We were granted access to Russian military forces as they continued to build up their presence in the region." "So this is Latakia air base, a Russian air base in Syria, and there's so much activity here." "(people speaking Russian)" "There are jets taking off constantly." "And every one we've seen so far has gone out armed with heavy bombs, and come back empty." "We've seen lots of jets leaving with heavy bombs attached, and then coming back empty." "Are they striking targets every time they fly?" "(speaking Russian)" "With so many powers now involved, the chances of the conflict escalating further are great." "In November last year, Turkey, a member of NATO, sparked an international incident when they shot down a Russian jet that they claimed had entered its airspace." "Russia has since moved large numbers of much bigger weapons into Syria." "So this warship is the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet." "This warship is armed with torpedoes and long-range anti-aircraft guns." "So they're no good against ISIS and al-Nusra and the other Syrian opposition groups." "It seems like the Russians are prepared for a war against national armies and navies, not just the rebel groups they are supposed to be here for." "For their part, ISIS promised attacks against anyone who joins the coalition against them." "And these are promises they have so far fulfilled." "In the last few months there have been attacks in Paris, in Beirut, a Russian civilian airliner was shot down, will there be more attacks, do you think, in the future?" "(speaking Arabic)" "And if you captured me or either of my friends, what would you do?" "If ISIS are defeated-- and I know it's a very big if-- but what happens next?" "There are worse things than ISIS in occupation of large swaths of Iraqi territory." "What is worse would be the ignition of a major unstoppable sectarian-denominated war." "The argument I hear a lot in the U.S. is let them sort out their civil war, let them kill each other, and, you know, why is it always us that has to go over and intervene?" "While it might be nice, if cold-blooded, to think they'll all just kill each other, well, they won't." "And whoever emerges on top-- the most determined, the most extreme, the most ruthless-- will then turn its sights to something really tempting, and that would be us." "(people screaming)" "Reports out of Paris that there have been three attacks, an ongoing situation... (sirens blaring)" "I think it is a question of when, not if, there is an al-Qaeda or ISIS-launched terrorist attack on American soil." "You just have to look at the thousands of foreign fighters who carry Western passports, with a capability that al-Qaeda pre-9/11 could only have dreamed of." "There are a lot of passionate intensities out there in the Middle East right now." "They will prevail." "We will not like the outcome."