Cold War Roots: Dictators and Jihadists as ClientsTo understand the War on Terror, Horton insists, one must start before 2001. Iraq War I and the Sanctions Regime: The Siege of a NationThe first Iraq war set the pattern for the decades that followed. Iraq War II: Aggression, Occupation, and Sectarian CleansingIf Afghanistan revealed America’s reliance on warlords and torture, Iraq was the supreme crime: a war of aggression launched on lies. Iraq War III: The Return to the SlaughterhouseThe rise of ISIS triggered the third U.S. war in Iraq, sold once again as a crusade against barbarism. The War on Terror was a war of choice, a war of lies, and above all a war for terror.