Quote Originally Posted by Tiaexz View Post
What tickles me is how the 'savour' of Iraq is Iran and the Shia Militas (the ones who fought the Allies), these who supported the regime in Syria and fought on their side. Whilst ISIS who was partially assisted by the Allies in the rebellion in Syria is the one assaulting Iraq.

Where is the link to that 'summary of the Middle East' which shows how much of a mess it is...
Which goes to show that "wait and see" is at least as viable a strategy in that region as the "fight for freedom". We upset the balance when we toppled Saddam, who, while not exactly a friend to us, was at least an enemy of our enemies, and who was doing an effective job of keeping them down without any involvement on our part, and thus without any reason for the loonies to resent us for keeping them down. Even though we weren't getting exactly what we wanted, it was close enough, without any expenditure of effort or resources on our part. The argument I made against war on Saddam in 2003 was just about the same as the one I made against war on Assad in 2013. In one case we went to war and are bitterly regretting it after wrecking our economy and reputation in going about it. In the other case, we didn't go to war, and I think we're bloody happy about our second thoughts.