An excellent article at Bionic Mosquito regarding US foreign policy misadventures and the show that is American Politics. An excerpt:
“It is virtually impossible to keep up with the mess that is US foreign policy. It was so much simpler when we only had to keep track of the lies told about the Soviet Union (ah, the good old days). But now?
“Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Ukraine. China and Russia. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel – supposedly US allies all – are they aiding or fighting ISIS? Where did ISIS come from, anyway? Are ISIS and al-Qaeda in cahoots or are they enemies? Iran (an enemy of the US) is supporting Iraq (a mess created by the US) against ISIS (supposedly an enemy of the US). The Kurds fight ISIS and are fought by Turkey. Syria fights ISIS and is attacked by…the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
“The enemy of my enemy is both my friend and my enemy all at the same time. Even with a scorecard, I can’t keep track of the players.
“Every ‘solution’ brings on three new problems. It is easy to conclude that new problems are the objective. Maybe. But what if no one is in charge? More precisely, what if the inmates are running the asylum – the bureaucracy is running on auto-pilot.
“Even more precisely: what if the bureaucracies are each running separately, in their own directions and on their own autopilots? Many different centers of capability – different warlords in charge of their own publicly-funded private war-making machines, each hiding behind the cover of a GS pay grade? Each supporting or fighting against entities of their own choosing for their own reasons.
“I guess it is possible that there is a strategy of ‘out of chaos, order.’ More often, out of chaos comes more chaos; so far, it has occurred this way. I suppose either outcome is satisfactory to some sub-set of the countless factions that have virtually sovereign string-pulling power.
“In the end, I don’t think the ‘what if’ matters. There is a real mess, and it is obvious to any thinking person – those capable of critical thinking in the general public (I met one once) as well as those capable of critical thinking in both the US government and (more importantly for where I am headed…I think) in various foreign governments of US allies (and others) – that the actions of the United States are directly contributory to the chaos.”
http://bionicmosquito.blogspot.com/2015/08/send-in-clowns.html#more