Since then I have learned more about the situation, and am inclined to agree that yes, this is another Clinton F*** Up.
It was an interesting time. It was my first experience of using the Internet (via some crude chat they had at the time) to talk to strangers over there in real time about what was going on.
At first I went at it with the assumption that the US was on the right side, naturally... but the more I talked to people over there (on both sides) the more I had to scratch my head wondering what the heck we were doing.