Quote:America's self perceived interest in the region is to maintain balance of power between states and religious sects so everybody's attentions and Machiavellian energies are primarily focused on smiling and backstabbing each other, with as little energy and attention as possible being free to divert in our direction, or the direction of Israel. American would further like this balance of power to be so arranged that is it is unstable by itself and can only be made somewhat stable with considerable American participation. This way at least some party would be beholden to the U.S. and willing to do our bidding.
We have no interest in letting anyone grow so big that their have spare energy and resource to pursue independent foreign policy objectives besides just barely keeping up with their neighbors, which given how much of an unwanted outsider we and Israel happen to be, would be to direct against us or Israel in one way or another. We also have no interest in the U.S. not being placed to meddle in the region when we like however we like, even if our departure does really promise peace, stability and prosperity.
Ah, so we can't stop meddling now because everyone hates us for all the meddling we've done... that actually does make sense somehow, even if it is bizarre that we've ended up in this situation
“The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought. And when you suspend your individual beauty you also give up a lot of your humanity. You will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own. Injuring, hurting, killing, drinking are all part of it, because you've lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that's bigger than you are and that controls you.” - George Carlin
