The 'West' has been trying to domonate/subjugate/control the Middle East for 200 years.

[trof]

The Brits, the French, the Germans, the Russians.
Even the Spanish and the Portuguese have taken a crack at it.
All have failed.
Miserably.

Because we no longer live in a tribal society, we don't understand what that entails.
As long as the tribal culture exists in the middle east (and it has thrived for CENTURIES) they will never want or "need" the sort of 'democratic' government that we keep trying to force on them.

But of course then WE come along and surely we know better than all the others because we ARE the bestest most badass country ever and we're smarter than all the rest put together and...here we are.

Yeah, I know this is old news for most of you.
But it just pisses me off that MY native land is too damn stupid and arrogant to
1/ LEARN from others' examples of abject failure OR
2/ Even learn FROM OUR OWN MISTAKES.

I quote Rudyard Kipling:
"Now it is not good for the Christian’s health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: “A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”
http://www.bartleby.com/364/300.html

I rest my case.

[Kaleva]

1. The Ottoman Empire subjected the region for hundreds of years

[msongs]

2. muslims spent at least that much time invading the west. seems east and

west share common attributes...oppressive, exclusionary and male dominated religions for a start

[FarCenter]

6. Unfortunately, the West adopted a Middle Eastern religion

Middle Eastern monotheism is a global curse.

So long as there are many gods, everyone is free to suit themselves.

If there is only one, then my god is the one and only right god, and you are a heretic who deserves to be killed for your blasphemy.

[Buzz cook]

3. The Crusades date a bit farther than 200yrs

Heck Roman and Greece had a turn at dominating the Middle East.

[Pope George Ringo II]

4. Forget about the Spanish and Russians. The Greeks and Romans tried it.

Alexander was actually moderately successful at it for a while, as these things go. Crassus' defeat at Carrhae ranks right there with the Teutoburg Wald and Cannae as epic Roman catastrophes. I'm often struck by the tragedy of Julian's death after Ctesiphon, too. A fair bit of the modern mess traces quite directly to the First World War and Sykes-Picot, and I'm still not quite sure which of the two was more stupid.

Of course, it's not like it was all one way. Remember Thermopylae, Lepanto, Vienna, and Roncevaux Pass. I've got no problem sympathizing with innocent individuals caught in a war, but there's a reason "Phoenician" AKA "Punic" is cognate with "punishment."

[trof]

7. Uh...I think I'm in WAY over my head here.

I majored in airplanes.
I believe I'll just quietly tiptoe out if that's OK?

[nolabels]

5. Yea, but they only have been trying to steal their oil for ninety

My home is Solar powered and my car an all-electric Chevy Bolt. It would be so much better if we could keep a lot that oil in the ground where was in the first place. I am trying my best to do my part at least