It used to be our worst nightmare – now it’s slowly becoming a reality.

I’m writing of course about the events that have recently unfolded in Iraq. A sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims has been brewing for years, quelled only by a U.S. presence.

When American troops left in 2011, Iraq was in a weak state characterized by corruption in even its highest echelons, despite them putting their best foot forward. Just two countries overlie Afghanistan, where democratic elections recently resulted in the continued presence of Western occupation. Perhaps that has made all the difference.

Militants from the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL), an organization so ruthless even al-Qaida disowned it in February, are threatening to push into Baghdad and turn back the clock to an oppressive rule the likes of which have not been seen since the days of Saddam Hussein.

Pundits across the nation are blaming the U.S. government. And so I must ask: Why?

First, even to entertain the idea that American policymakers are to blame for a worsening security situation in Iraq requires one to throw all notions of sovereign responsibility to the wind. Need I remind skeptics that our troops withdrew two and a half years ago? That our military has trained theirs to combat terrorism, provided them with the best equipment and attempted to help those in need with $1.1 billion in humanitarian assistance since 2010 alone is not enough for some.

It’s almost as though a dichotomy has formed in which either people live in fear under brutal dictators or a foreign peacekeeping presence is required for citizens to carry on with their daily lives. And either way, we’re damned for it.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair spelled it out perfectly in an essay on his website.

“We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t,” he wrote. “We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not; and whether action or inaction is the best policy, and there is a lot to be said on both sides. But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region, not outside it.”

And a regional crisis it is. There’s much to say about where these terrorists actually come from – financing, training and all.

Consider the religious divides representing the heart of the issue. Iran is a majority Shiite nation, much like Iraq. In Syria, Shiite Hezbollah fights alongside Assad’s forces to repel the Sunni ISIL and other militants funded by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

Syria has become a battleground for third party warfare. Unfortunately, it appears now that the conflict there, which is seemingly a power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia, is spilling over into Iraq. Realizing the threat to the entire region their actions pose, clerics have halted fundraising for militants at the request of their governments.

But it’s too late.

According to the State Department, ISIL has claimed responsibility for a massacre of 1700 Iraqi Shiite air force recruits in Tikrit, a recently captured city just 140 kilometers north of Baghdad. The Sunni militias will quickly be on the doorstep of the capitol, and who will stop them?

Police and soldiers alike are laying down their arms and abandoning those they swore to protect. In some cases, it appears that militants were gaining control of American equipment, but a statement released by the Defense Department has assured that Iraq was never sold a reportedly captured Black Hawk helicopter. The statement also put to rest other misconceptions about the origins of a surface-to-air missile-launching vehicle.

On the other hand, when ISIL captured Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul, the group gained access to up to 400,00 pieces of weaponry and ammunition, a quarter of which has been moved across the border into Syria, according to an Iraqi intelligence official who spoke under the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press.

The Iranian government has offered assistance to its fellow Shiite government in Iraq, but because they are already fighting a similar battle in Syria, the heavily sanctioned Islamic Republic cannot afford to stretch itself thin. In a surprising turn of events, the U.S. has welcomed the country’s efforts.

Unfortunately, I feel it’s only a matter of time before the Shiites are overrun in Iraq. The U.S. has already hinted that it would be receptive of a leadership change that would help to represent the Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

As it stands, however, Iraq is split into three distinct regions: Kurdish control in the north, Sunnis in the west and Shiites in the east.

And there is nothing we can do to stop it.