You are the one who is being simplistic.
I’m looking at cold hard reality. Plus I’ve travelled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa and I’ve read lots of history of the region ... way back.
These religious wars have been going on for over 1000 years, since way before there was a USA. We are not going to stop them even if we devoted every man woman and child in the United States to only that task and no other.
Look, the world is dangerous and bad stuff happens everywhere. Christians in the Middle East know who their neighbors are and what they are like. They’ve known for centuries. My own ancestors left Syria for this reason.
What is your plan? I don’t see a workable plan that is going to make Muslims stop killing a) each other and b) others when the get the chance.
Why are we concentrating on A ?
Why are we arming and training Muslims ... over and over again?
I like Bush and I voted for Bush but his position on “minds and hearts” is indistinguishable from Harf’s. It doesn’t work. They will never ever like us and they will never ever stop killing each other (and blaming others). It’s just that harsh reality.
I do not agree with sending our military over there to protect some Muslims from other Muslims in a 1000+ year old religious civil war ... and that is what we are doing. It might sound good and noble and altruistic and all that but in reality it is just stupid.
"Yes, it’s complicated."
If it's that complicated for you, who's the simpleton?
You also wrote:
"Plus I’ve travelled extensively in the Middle East and North Africa and I’ve read lots of history of the region ... way back."
Wow! Then you should know better than the "a la Israel" statement.
"My own ancestors left Syria for this reason."
Thank God they knew better than staying and trying to "arm themselves in defensive positions, a la Israel." They saved your family by understanding that leaving at the time was the right thing to do. Those were the good times in Syria compared to what it is today.
"I don’t see a workable plan that is going to make Muslims stop killing a) each other and b) others when the get the chance."
You didn't think of the crucial c)...MAKING THE EFFORT TO KILL Americans all over the world in general and on American soil in particular.
"What is your plan?"
Item #1 in my plan will injure your humanitarian sensibility with its "simplicity!" Here goes that offensive word again.
1- raze Al Reqqa to the ground in hours by the B-52s. Don't worry about the left screaming"war crimes" and such nonsense. Once the head of the snake is gone, the word will be that
* أمريكا ذبحت القطة. You should be familiar with this ME expression. It means literally: America slaughtered the cat. That transmits the message: if America did that unfathomable deed, what would they do to the rest of us if we don't behave? Terrorists only respect brutal force, not empty threats. Until they taste it, they'll carry on their savagery It's a historical fact in the ME.
2- finishing ISIS off would be done with Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and other Arab ground troops augmented with our SF and coordinated air strikes of the coalition that supposedly exists now.
3- no Iranian deal! No $50 bil signing bonus.
4- outhouse growing a spine and no more instructions from ValJar.
So, what do you say? My plan or shall we sit it out, dump our allies who want to fight ISIS and fight the savages in our streets?
Until we achieve energy independence by overpowering the globull warming crowd and drill everywhere, we will need the ME!
It's just a "simple" fact of life!