Time to leave the Middle East before perpetual war becomes normal

[SBu]

The price of maintaining perpetual military engagement in the ME is not worth the benefits.

The price (facts):

-about: $1,570,000,000,000.00 (that's what 1.57 trillion $ looks like)
-4,486 Americans killed in Iraq
-2,201 Americans killed in Afghanistan
-annual Military funding to useless militaries: Top 6 in 2008: Afghanistan: $6 billion Iraq: $4 billion; Israel: $2 billion; Egypt: $1.3 billion; Pakistan $300 million; Jordan: $200 million
- $13.8 billion in 2008 (taking $10 as a general average per year, since 2003 = $120 billion)

The price (opinions):

-Erosion of our constitutional liberties
- various intelligence collection methods that are questionable at best
- presidential intervention in conflicts without the expressed consent of congress for over 6 months now
- drone attacks on US citizens without due process (even if they are vile terrorists)
- questionably legal related operations all over the world
-Distracting military and civilian leaders from other critical areas
- drawing resources from other needed development projects
- taking the 'rebalance' to asia off track
- a military that has been training to conduct counter insurgency operations in a permissive environment rather than training to the much different environment of a head to head fight with a more conventional adversary
-Eroding our national credibility/reputation
- Lybia is a mess and made us look like idealist cowboys again
-Egypt is once again becoming a dictatorship, one that we are still funding
-Syria is a mess and made us look indecisive
-Iraq is a mess and made us look like unreliable friends
-Iran process doesn't seem to be producing fruit and has alienated our relationship with Israel and Saudis
-Afghanistan? give it time and we'll let them down too
-Pakistan a nation on the brink of failure and makes it look like we tolerate bad friends who work to undermine us almost publicly

The benefits:

Hmm...errr...no not quite...oil?


The question: Is it still worth it to keep doing the same things over and over in the middle east? Does our involvement benefit us (clearly I think not)? Are our 'partners and allies' in the region doing enough for themselves? Is it possible for the US to operate somewhere in the middle of a Sunni/Shi'i pan regional civil war and be able to come out advantageously? Would it be better for us to leave the region and let the regional hatreds and rivalries work themselves out, as they inevitably will and must do, without further ineffectual American involvement? Should we instead focus on containing the middle east quagmire (its violence, culture, and yes, religion)? In a region where everyone hates each other and more importantly puts that hatred and rivalry before anything else, is it possible for us not to be perpetually engaged in some kind of war in the ME?

Please explain


Sources:
cost: Google Image Result for https://static.nationalpriorities.org/images/counters/military-annualized-cost-of-war-14.png
Lives: 4,486 American Soldiers Have Died in Iraq. President Obama Is Continuing a Pointless and Deadly Quagmire.*|*H. A. Goodman
FMF cost: United States Foreign Military Financing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Paschendale]

The Middle East is never going to sort itself out if we keep intervening. What they need is internal conflict, not an exterior foe to band together against.

 

[Manc Skipper]

Before you say "Becomes normal" There's barely been a decade where the USA hasn't been involved in armed struggle somewhere in the world or at home.

Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[SBu]

Before you say "Becomes normal" There's barely been a decade where the USA hasn't been involved in armed struggle somewhere in the world or at home.

Timeline of United States military operations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is about the ME, however, and the cost vs. benefit of what we have done there in recent history, what we are currently doing, and what it seems the current administration wants to do in the future.