Disastrous Interventions

Much of the current chaos in the Middle East, not to mention the spreading threat of terror in Europe and America, can be traced to the series of disastrous interventions the West has made aimed at overthrowing dictators and establishing democracy. The original, the big one, was W's declaration of war on Saddam Hussein. In addition to destabilizing a lot of fraught relationships among Sunni and Shia, Arab and Kurd, Iran and Iraq, it set some unfortunate precedents.

Subsequent interventions in Libya, Syria, and Yemen have proven at least equally ill-fated. In no country has a stable democracy emerged. Libya and Syria are complete basket cases. It's obvious now, if it wasn't always, that we don't have a clue as to how to go about imposing democracy.

So what to do? Avoid interference when possible? Discourage our citizens from travel to these places. Respond at a basic level by revenging the murder of our citizens.

Revenge is a basic human emotion which even quite primitive groups understand. Make it clear that we don't want to change their religion or culture, but we will kill them if provoked?

Better ideas?

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