In Thursday’s Senate hearing on the authorization for military action against the Islamic State, Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) tried to make the argument that the United States presence in Iraq lead to the rise of the Islamic State.
Murphy made a long-winded metaphor comparing the growth of terrorism to flat worms. According to Murphy, when U.S. troops removed Saddam Hussein from power, competing Sunni and Shiite insurgencies grew in his place.
"We were told that more troops would do the trick, and it worked," Murphy said.
What Murphy failed to mention is that the growth of IS came after President Obama had started to pull US troops out of the Middle East.