Why Are We in the Middle East?

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/05/18/why-are-we-middle-east

To placate their pique at his effort to get a non-proliferation agreement with Iran, Barack Obama met last Thursday at Camp David with Saudi royals and leaders of the other five feudal dictatorships of the Persian Gulf. He reaffirmed the United States "ironclad" commitment to their security and promised even more military aid and cooperation. After the personal dust-up between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu settles, we can expect the Administration and Congress to add even more steel to our commitment to protect and subsidize Israel by adding more to its already vast store of sophisticated weapons.

Thus, we take another step deeper into the tragedy of U.S. intervention in the Middle East that has become a noxious farce.

Consider just one of the head-spinning subplots: We are allied with our declared enemy, Iran, against the bloody Islamic State, which was spawned from the chaos created by our own earlier decisions to invade Iraq and to overthrow the Assad regime in Syria, which has us fighting side-by-side with jihadist crazies financed by Saudi Arabia, whom we are supporting against the Houthis in Yemen, the bitter rivals of Al Qaeda -- the perpetrators of 9/11!

Since 1980, we have invaded, occupied and/or bombed at least 14 different Muslim countries. After the sacrifice of thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars, the region is now a cauldron of death and destruction. Yet, we persist, with no end in sight. As a former Air Force General Charles F. Wald remarked told the Washington Post, "We're not going to see an end to this in our lifetime."

Democrats and Republicans snipe over tactics, but neither wants to discuss the question of whether we should be there in the first place. Even liberals counseling caution, like the New York Times editorial board, hasten to agrees that the U.S. must play a "leading role" in solving the Middle East's many problems. In other worlds, stay the course.

[Exilednight]

1. Oil.

It's the only reason we are there. If there were no oil, we wouldn't give a shit.

[eridani]

3. Buying the fucking oil outright would be way cheaper than conquering it n/t

[Glassunion]

9. Not for the corporation

You see you spend a trillion taxpayer dollars so the oil companies can save.

[Exilednight]

11. Very true. Take a trillion from taxpayers to give billions to

Oil companies.

[newfie11]

4. That's exactly right

And we the sheeple go right along with it.

[bvf]

5. This ^

[Martin Eden]

8. It's the MONEY associated with OIL and the MIC

It's not about obtaining a natural resource for the economic security of the American people. It's about increasing the wealth and power of the one tenth of the one percent who control our government.

[woo me with science]

2. ...

[Demeter]

6. Because Empire....it's a tradition!

We are picking up where the Brits left off, and doing an even worse job of it, if that's possible.

[HereSince1628]

10. Empire, maybe, but possibly not ours. n/t