What many forget was the simple fact that there was an ongoing Salafist insurgency already in progress being bitterly fought between them and the ISS.

Yes we broke it as we literally walked into the middle of this insurgency totally not knowing about it which if left alone would have eventually led to Saddam being overthrown by his own not an outside force.

That Salafist insurgency bridged across both the Shia and Sunni sides and did not include AQI.