ISIS is brutal. Where did they come from?

When I was in Iraq in 2004 with Christian Peacemaker Teams, we visited an Iraqi town that had been raided by the United States. The U.S. military showed up in the middle of the night, separated the men from the women and children, and took all of the men to Abu Ghraib prison. So the next day we went to Abu Ghraib.

The American guards would, of course, not let us in, but there were hundreds of Iraqi civilians outside, looking for their loved ones. There were notes coming out of the prison from Iraqi women, saying they were being raped by Americans.

Two months later the news broke that Abu Ghraib was a cesspool of sexual abuse. The women were raped and the men were tortured.

Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi and many thousands of innocent Iraqi men were incarcerated at Abu Ghraib or Camp Bucca, where they were physically, sexually and mentally abused. Now he and his fighters hate all things Western, and it is we Americans that gave them reason to feel that way.

The brutality and stupidity of our own government is impressive.

Dana Visalli

Winthrop, Wash.