> The US destroyed their lives. Their communities were destroyed, their jobs vanished, and their loved ones were dead. Many certainly reacted despicably, but the US deserves most of the blame.

The US gets blamed for the deaths that occured, but it won't get praise for the deaths that may have been prevented. Consider who Saddam Hussein was, how he came to power, how he stayed in power and what his dictatorship was like.

Does he strike you as someone who can maintain a dynasty? In a country like Iraq, where the regime is Sunni despite being in the minority, where the Shia majority is being supported by neighboring Iran?

Consider what the Iraqi military could have done under Saddam Hussein to its own people, in the case of a civil war. Consider that Saddam Hussein didn't hesitate to kill over 100,000 Kurds and Assyrians.

> One of the major triggers for the Arab Spring was the US diplomatic cable leaks, and much of the military power any insurgents had was a result of US backing. Without the War on Terror, the Arab Spring would have been a completely different thing if it happened at all.

That almost sounds like your average dictator blaming all civil unrest on "foreign meddling". Sure, you can blame the US or Wikileaks for exposing these regimes, or for running a couple of covert support operations, but it also takes a huge part of the people to actually do the uprising.