…and after much reflection, I think we need to get our ass out of the Middle East.

Oh sure, there are a lot of good reasons to be there, but just as many not to be, and our continued presence there for the last 13 years has accomplished nothing, and it can be argued it has only made the situation worse. This is not a partisan assessment, both Bush and Obama have failed in their missions, the first to install a puppet regime and intimidate all our enemies and reassure our friends. And Obama has failed at conducting a disciplined and responsible withdrawal and leaving the area politically and militarily stable.

We broke it, so we own it, but I think both administrations have done everything possible to stabilize the area, in blood and treasure, and it just doesn’t want to be stable. We did our best, it did no good. So sue us.

Sure, we still need oil from there, and our European allies do to, so we can continue to arm and support those regimes that will trade with us. But we have no business taking sides in their internal political and religious struggles. And even if we did have a moral right, we have shown ourselves to be completely inept at it, in a remarkably bipartisan fashion.

So what do we do about ISIS? Exactly what we’re doing now. We bomb them and drone them, and we arm and support their enemies, provided they pay for our help. They can afford it. But not one more GI needs to die there. Let the Iraqis and Saudis and Iranians fight it out amongst themselves. The same in Afghanistan. Let the Pakis police the Taliban. We can still continue our covert was against Al-Quaeda, El Habab, the Sahel Jihadis, the Yemenis and all the others. But let them do the fighting. When one side looks like it is gaining the upper hand, and if it starts looking like a threat to us, then we can reassess the situation. That’s why we have aircraft carriers, right?

The Russians learned their lesson in Afghanistan, we should learn ours. We can not influence politics in an area where there is no political organization, just religious and sectarian strife. Sure, down the road, the situation may get a lot worse for us there than it is now, and we may be forced to act. But right now we are incapable of doing anything except make things worse, and even if there were a policy that made sense in the long run, WE are too divided politically to implement it now.

In the meantime, the countries in the region are too divided to hurt us or our allies, and that is a situation that favors our interests much more than stability and unity in the region. Offer our help to anyone who asks for it, but make them pay for it, and withdraw it immediately if they give us any crap.

I’m starting to come to the opinion that Bowser is right–perhaps not for the same reasons, but he’s right. We need to leave them alone.