This is why the US can’t have coherent foreign policy. It has little grasp of or interest in realities on the ground, believes exceptional force can solve everything, and other countries simply cannot carry on without US intervening into their affairs to make them safe for democracy.
Witness this vapid, arrogant statement from Obama about Iraq:
“The nature of this problem is not one that the U.S. military can solve. Our military obviously can play an extraordinarily important role in bolstering efforts of an Iraqi partner as they make the right steps to keep their country together. But we can’t do it for them.”
Obama’s statement is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start. The US has mostly destroyed Iraq, invaded based on lies, destabilized the entire region, funded the current enemy ISIS to fight Assad and are now gobsmacked ISIS is in Iraq. Further, Iraq as we know it is dead. It inevitably will split into parts. Instead of acknowledging the obvious, Obama pretends Iraq will somehow be as it was, before the US invaded and that Iraq simply needs to man up and git ‘er done. I’m guessing most Iraqis feel rather differently about the US “helping” them.
Saddam was a thug. However Iraq did have a functioning economy and Saddam slapped down Islamists hard and fast, something the US never does until far too late, generally because we’ve armed those very same Islamists to fight someone else. Lest we forget, when Bill Clinton ordered a Bin Laden base in Afghanistan blown up, it couldn’t be done. Why? Because it was built to CIA specs when Bin Laden was their asset and was impervious to direct missile strikes. This kind of deranged idiocy is what characterizes CIA / NSA / black ops. Those in charge of such operations are not patriots. Rather, they are war criminals and quite probably war profiteers. No other explanation makes sense. Our self-destructive wars continue because a few at the top make a lot of money and gain much power because of war. This includes Obama, who like Bill Clinton, will surprisingly become quite wealthy shortly after leaving office.
Meanwhile, countries fall into chaos because of their actions.