I have no idea, Tenny.  We support the Iranians 'here' and oppose them 'there'.  What happens next is beyond me.  I'm trying to put myself in their place and have no idea how they might view this someday.

Good post, Tennyson. I can see how we fell into this.
ISIS is a dangerous, destabilizing force in the region. We have decided to attempt to defeat them. We can use our airpower. But, putting a large ground force of Americans in there is both unwise and politically impossible. So, we need to borrow an army. The Iraqi army is beyond useless. Heck, many of them and their weapons are in the hands of ISIS. Assad is a non starter. The Turks are about as useful as tits on a bull. 
That leaves the Iranian militias.

In Yemen it i in our best interests to resist Iranian efforts to undermine Saudi Arabian interests.

And there you have it. Entirely reasonable seeds that will lead to a cluster,,, well, you know.
It's a mess.

Ok, maybe I view the whole Middle East thing differently.  I see the various terrorist groups as 'crime families', not official governments.  These crime families join forces with eachother, split off from eachother, pop up, or disappear without notice.  At one time there were as many as 25 of these groups identified operating in numbers from as little as 200 up to maybe a few thousand members.  I see using religion as a backdrop to justify whatever their goals are and do whatever it is they do.

An analogy:  There are several hornet nests being built in your neighborhood.  It bothers you and you decide to go out there and beat one of them with a stick and knock it down because a hornet from one of the nests stung a family member.  Many hornets die, but some survive and form new alliances with other hornets or maybe recruit new hornets and start a new colony where none existed before.  This pattern repeats itself over and over again as you race around the neighborhood beating down the insurgents.  How do you win this 'war on hornets'?

I agree with rongone in that it's going to take a coalition of nations to get a handle on this mess.  Just like you need to convince neighbors to join you and invest time and money into a neighborhood-wide effort to eradicate the hornets.

I just don't sense enough help from other countries and the non-violent Muslim community coming together to defeat and/or contain the menacing hornet crime families.  Maybe I'm way off here, but at some point we're going to have to accept the fact it has become a free-for-all in this piece of the world and it's going to take more than beating hornet nests with sticks to bring some sanity back to the place.

BTW, Netanyahu ain't helping.  He's the neighbor who wants you to send him more sticks.

Sorry for the rambling rant.  I find all of this to be absolutely exasperating and my head hurts.  I'm going outside and play in my water garden and get ready for a yard sale this weekend.



 

If a faction can topple a government, then how strong was that government in the first place?  These crime families and governments play musical chairs with their leadership so do we even know who or what we are dealing with when we jump into the pool?

It's a multi-layered confusing mess.  I like to think I have the ability to assess things objectively and rationally, but I can't get a handle on this one.  I really can't, so maybe I need to step away from this thread for awhile.

Carry on.

I am honestly amazed that people still can't understand why people in the middle east hate us.