The Middle East is a mess. There's Iraq, of course. That doesn't seem likely to end well, or at all. Then there's Iran, with it's looming nuclear capability. And, of course there's Israel. Israel and Palestine. Israel and Lebanon. Israel and us.
Not to be crude, but, why should we, in the United States, give a flip? Is it because stability in any region is valuable to global commerce? If that were the case, we'd jettison Israel in a heartbeat and good riddance. Is it because, as the defender of liberty where ever it's threatened, we have a moral obligation? If that were the case, we'd look more carefully at whose side we're on. Moreover, why isn't it just as important in Darfur, or Kashmir, or Sri Lanka?
The inescapable conclusion is that we're too dependant on oil to leave politics and conquest in the oil-rich Holy Land to the tender mercies of its inhabitants. And that means that our policy is even more stupid than its disasterous results would indicate. If the US invested a tenth of the money we spend on war, aid, diplomacy, or just plain crap in the ME on hydrogen fuel cells, or wind generation, or who knows what alternatives, we'd be in a much more secure position to let them have their fun and be done with it.
