Insight into why Hussein was "protecting" ISIS? Preserving his legacy.
CNN sugar coats it here.
https:// www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/politics/obama-isis-strategy-paris-attacks/index.html
Which he labeled as the JayVee team….
"There are four big factors. The first is the Syrian civil war, which launched in 2011 in reaction to President Bashar al-Assad's brutal repression of peaceful protests against his dictatorship.
The second factor was the role that some of [Saddam] Hussein's former officer corps played in helping ISIS to its victories. A number of the late dictator's former commanders helped to professionalize ISIS as a fighting force.
The third factor was the feckless and incompetent rule of then-Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who marginalized Sunnis and disenfranchised them from Iraq's political process to the point that many Sunnis preferred the rule of the Islamist militants in ISIS to that of the "Shia" government in Baghdad. Inexplicably, the Obama White House kept backing Maliki despite his manifest flaws as a leader.
The fourth factor was the hollowing out of the Iraqi army, which simply ran away as ISIS made its most dramatic advances during the first half of 2014. The Iraqi army was poorly led, poorly paid and riven with corruption."
CNN continues on to sugar coat once again Hussein's (Barry) involvement.
https:// www.cnn.com/2016/01/04/opinions/bergen-trump-obama-clinton-creation-of-isis/