The more and more I see what's happening in the middle east, the more that my thoughts on the region are evolving.
Our mission in the middle east should be to protect our own direct interests, period. Help prop up governments that support us, take out terrorists who are a direct threat to us and do everything in your power to stop a nuclear arms race in a region dominated by religious sociopaths.
No more nation building or taking out of dictators. If you take out a brutal dictator, vacuums get filled by these nutballs. Unless you are prepared to invest hundreds of billions of dollars, risk the lives of American troops and dedicate decades of time and effort to stabilize the country, then stay the F*ck out.
And with the way our political system is set up, we can't ever make that guarantee. The American public's emotions sways like a leaf in the wind. One year they believe we should be a bunch of interventionists, politicians run on that mantle and we elect them in. The politician follows through on the policy that he was elected on and then we intervene. Once the public becomes war weary, which they always do, then the pressure is on to withdraw, a new politician runs on withdrawing and scaling back US interventionism and voilaaa, he gets elected and withdraws and then of course chaos breaks loose creates vacuums and then they get filled.
This is going to continue to be a rinse and repeat scenario if things don't change. And to be honest, it's not going to be politicians who change this mentality it has to come from the U.S electorate. Considering that over half our society is more interested in Social media and pop culture than substantive matters, well......Good luck with that.