Did the US occupation create ISIL?

In this Head to Head special from Washington DC, Mehdi Hasan challenges Paul Bremer, who was appointed by President George W Bush to run the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in the wake of the Iraq war, on whether his policies led to the rise of ISIL.

I've taken full responsibility for the mistakes I've made.

by Paul Bremer

As the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Bremer ordered the disbanding of the Iraqi army and banned members of the Ba’ath Party from holding public office.

These measures, critics say, were directly responsible for Iraq’s descent into chaos.

With no panel or audience, we discuss the US track record in Iraq and the region, from the 2003 invasion to the rise of ISIL. We ask him how personally responsible he feels for the birth of ISIL and whether the US should put a significant number of soldiers back on the ground in the region.  

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Head to Head is Al Jazeera’s forum of ideas, a gladiatorial contest tackling big issues such as faith, nationalism, democracy and foreign intervention in front of an opinionated audience at the Oxford Union.

Watch previous Head to Head shows here.