Quote (fender @ 26 Oct 2019 20:23)
inaction would have been 'tolerable', but that's not what america did.
you created the power vacuum that lead to the forming of ISIS, you toppled regimes and invaded countries based on lies. you are very much directly responsible for this mess, while now pretending it's none of your business (except the oil of course, you don't mind sending your boys and girls to 'protect' that),
Yes, America has contributed greatly to the mess in the Middle East. But they have been trying to fix their previous mistakes for over 50 years, and every attempt at fixing anything has only made things worse.
Supported the Shah in Iran, which laid the foundation for the Iranian revolution. Oops, huge fuckup.
Supported Saddam in his war efforts against Iran. Oops, he just invaded our ally Kuwait.
Supported a Kurdish insurgency against Saddam. Oh wait, we have come to the conclusion that Saddam must stay in power to avoid a power vacuum, and now he has massacred the Kurds with poison gas. Oops. Sorry. We wont ever let the Kurds down again, promise!
Supported Al Quaeda in their guerrilla war against the Soviet Union. It's super effective! But oh wait, they are crazy islamistic terrorists who hate us, and now they've blown up the WTC.
Invaded Afghanistan to destroy Al Quaeda's safe harbour, but oh shit, the country is a total hellhole with no public society to build a stable state on, due to the war we fueled 20 years ago, and the Taliban rule that we enabled.
Invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam because it was a mistake to leave him in power 12 years ago. Oops, the power vacuum this left behind leads to a civil-war like Shiite insurgency, emboldens Iran and eventually paves the way for the rise of ISIS.
Supported the riots against Assad, supported the FSA. Oh wait, the majority of them are islamists. Cant commit though, so Syria will now be divided by Russia and Turkey while our allies in Europe are thrown into political and logistical turmoil by the resulting refugee waves.
Supported the idea of the Iran nuclear deal, hoping that the additional funds would strengthen the moderate forces in the country and help out their suffering people. Oops, the Mullahs used the breathing room the deal gave them not to strengthen their economy, but to fund their proxy wars in Yemen and Syria.
And the list goes on and on and on. At some point, this shit has to end. Responsibility for a region does not mean beating a dead horse, it means doing what's best for this region. And there is a long list of historical evidence that the US trying to fix or clean up their previous mistake in the Middle East doesnt actually help anyone or solve any problems, instead it causes even more mayhem and trouble. The responsible thing to do for the US is to leave. Just think of an alcoholic dad who leaves his family because he came to the conclusion that his children are better off without him.
Now, obviously such a withdrawal has to be carefully planned out, with an idea of how, and of who will take up the mantle. It has to be done with proper preparation and communication; not overnight and on a whim. The execution of Trump's Syria withdrawal is an unmitigated disaster. However, this doesnt necessarily have to mean that the underlying idea is bad too.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Oct 26 2019 04:39pm