This administration made a brilliant move by taking Iraq. We are positioned to strike Syria, Iran, etc. With what? Our military is waaaay overextended as it is. We never should've halved our military in the 1990s.
I even believe that it is creating a decoy to centralize terrorists.
Agreed. I believe it was Mark Steyn who called it "carefully hung flypaper." Our soldiers can't hunt down the terrorists in Iran, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc. But the presence of the U.S. military in Iraq is drawing them to us. Brilliant, IMO.
we own the Middle East now
I'm not as optimistic about this as you are...yet.
We do not have the military presence in numbers, BUT what we do have now that we didn't are staging areas, weaponry bases, and KNOWLEDGE, all centralized and capable of striking. If a major threat was imminent coming from the Middle East against US borders we would swarm the threatening country in a minutes notice. As far as owning the Middle East, oh yes, every rogue country in the region has their eyes on us and they are on the defense. Hussein was nothing but a stupid man who gave us every reason to conquer and headquarter in Iraq.