"Human, civilized society has lost the battle against barbarism. I have lost all hope."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

145. Every situation in my lifetime where the U.S. has tried to "help" has turned out badly

You know, like supporting the Mujahedin in Afghanistan to fight the Russians, thereby giving Osama Bin Laden and the most reactionary elements of Afghan society a boost, encouraging the Taliban to take over after the Russians left (yes! because the CIA though they were the most organized), invading Afghanistan in 2001 (suddenly all concerned about the women there, in addition to catching our boy Bin Laden, despite the fact that the REAL left and feminist organizations had been complaining about the Taliban ever since 1997), driving the Taliban out but facing a resurgence of inter-tribal rivalry and the opium trade, spreading the war to Taliban outposts in Pakistan...

Really, it would have been better to let the Soviets take over. No, I'm serious. If you look at what the Soviets did in the neighboring "'Stans," which are also predominantly Muslim areas, they sent everyone to coed schools for a secular education and instituted equal rights for women, two things that Afghanistan needed badly and which the Afghan equivalent of rednecks were opposed to.

I think it's obvious that Afghanistan would be a much different place after 35 years of secular education and equal rights for women, but since the Soviets were Communists, they couldn't be allowed to be successful, so the U.S. government aligned itself with the most backward elements of Afghan society, the ones who didn't know Communism from Consumerism but who sure weren't gonna let their womenfolk get none of that book l'arnin' and walkin' around like shameless hussies with their faces uncovered.

And Iraq, oh, that turned out so well. As nasty as Saddam Hussein was, he had no use for the radical Islamic forces and didn't allow them in his country. He also allowed Christians and Jews and other religious minorities such as the Yazidis (there had been Orthodox Christians in Iraq for more than 1500 years and Jews long before that) to practice their religions freely and had the best record on education, health care, and women's rights of any Arab country.

Don't get me started on Vietnam. Those were my high school and college years.

ISIS is no threat to the U.S., and the Middle Eastern countries need to sort it out among themselves. For one thing, Jordan is really angry about having one of its own people burned alive, and it is going after ISIS. Iran--yes, the Iran we are all told to hate--is also fighting ISIS.