Iraq and Afghanistan

If you look at Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistian you will notice that the governments the U.S. put in place are  gone in Viet Nam now since about 1974. And likely by 2020 the governments we put in place in Iraq and Afghanistan will be gone too.

But, in the end Nation building isn't going to work most places like it has in South Korea and Japan. These are the only two successes along with Europe after World War II.

You have to be realistic that where you are trying to nation build you have to be aware of the local dynamics. People in the Middle East, except for Turkey, and Egypt aren't really prepared for a democracy. Because of this it works a little bit to have a democracy in Iraq but only as well about Iran which really cannot be considered to have a democracy at all for a variety of reasons. Iran is a democracy about as much as Russia is a democracy. In other words it is a sham not a real democracy.

So, what were all the the injuries and deaths by Americans and Europeans all about?

You have to consider all that to only have been a police action. To think about it in any other way really isn't useful.

Also, what we did actually in some ways made it safer to live in the U.S. However, consequently also, it made it less safe (by a factor of at least 100) in the middle East. So, what are we going to do?

Likely, we will continue to make the U.S. safe while destabilizing (actually) the rest of the world at this point. Because most places the cultures are just so unpredictable and difficult to understand now, (even for people who might live there) that the U.S. is likely going to screw up anywhere we send in troops now, (even when we are trying to do good for everyone and not just for ourselves).

As the world gets more and more confused there are less and less actions which can be helpful in the short or the long run from any nation to any nation.

This is just a sign of the times we now live in.

At least the U.S. will be less blamed for all the Middle Eastern problems than Russia, Assad, and Iran.

So, likely there will be a lot of ISIS type terrorists going after Russia, Iran and Assad from now on it appears from everything I'm presently seeing.