Is the Middle East more de-stabilized now than after Iraq invasion?

[kentuck]

Perhaps it is a matter of perspective?

Iran seems to be more unstable now than in 2003?

Iraq is still the training ground for militias and various terrorist groups, such as ISIS.

With the assassination of Suleimani, there may be much more disorganization and unpredictabilty with the various militia groups?

One might expect there to be more random violence and attacks from some of these groups.

It is difficult to believe the area is more stable.

[11cents]

1. Certainly, but...

... I don't go along with numerous implications that can be drawn from this: that the "stability" of Saddam or the Assad family is a good in itself; that the "instability" of anti-government protests in Iran is a bad in itself; that everything that's happened in the Middle East is attributable to US actions alone, without agency on the part of Middle Eastern regimes or peoples. Certainly in the case of Iran, it's been a long time coming and the regime has brought it all on itself.

[kentuck]

2. Good points.

Whether good or bad, I think Donald Trump is mainly responsible for the de-stabilization now taking place in Iran.

Many Iranians may support Trump?

[BlueMTexpat]

4. In one word, YES!

That does not mean that I supported Saddam Hussein. At all.

But one of the most tragic things that was lost was a much more pluralistic, inclusive and tolerant society, where Shias, Sunnis, Christians and most other faiths lived together in mixed neighborhoods, for the most part peacefully. Intermarriage, especially between Sunnis and Shias, was more common than not.

Most Iraqi Jews had fled much earlier - decades before the 1991 Gulf War - generally either to Israel or Europe, often France, because of historical ties with the French.

For more information, please see http://theconversation.com/diversity-and-religious-pluralism-are-disappearing-amid-iraqs-crisis-29832

Snippets

...
Few outside Iraq are aware the country has a black African minority, more than ten indigenous Christian denominations, a Jewish community, various ancient religions and several ethnicities that existed solely in Iraq until recent migration took them beyond their homeland’s borders. Examples of these groups include Yazdanism, Shabakism, Kakaeism and many more. Iraq has at least 30 distinct, identifiable enthno-religious groups.

Intercommunal harmony in Iraq began to unravel in the last decades of the 19th century as a consequence of political conflict between rival ideologies, coinciding with the decay of the Ottoman Empire. The “Sayfo” genocide, which began in the 19th century, claimed the lives of approximately 250,000 Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq and neighbouring areas in Turkey, Syria and Iran. In 1933, around 3000 Assyrians were slaughtered in the “Simele” genocide.

The most painful and shocking episode in Iraq’s multicultural history was the departure of its Jewish community. In just two decades, Iraq’s 120,000-strong Jewish minority, whose history dated back more than 26 centuries, disappeared. Many Jewish Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks from the 1950s.

The exact circumstances of this tragic episode in Iraq’s history is not entirely known and the origins of the bombing and intimidation of Iraq’s Jews remain unclear. Many Iraqis sincerely regret the loss of their Jewish neighbours. Some have even maintained contact with them and meet in other countries outside Iraq and Israel.
...

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This article dates from 2014. The situation has worsened since. But Bush II/Cheney have MUCH to answer for, especially for having listened mainly to Shia refugees and political outcasts with their own agendas, none of which included the betterment of Iraqi society as a whole.