Any thoughts, guys?
I'll say this also our problems with state sponsored terrorism began wholesale when Gerald Ford signed an EO prohibiting our operatives worldwide from taking out serious threats including rouge dictators via covert ops. That in turn legitimized in the likes of Arseahola Komaniac, Idi Amin, Quadaffy, Arafat, and others. It eliminated from the equation of stability the threat of paying with their own very lives for terrorist acts done or supported upon U.S. interest and soil.
Paul also fails to acknowledge it wasn't simply a matter of U.S. placing leaders in nations. It was a lot more complex. The Cold War was going on and USSR was looking for real estate to expand into. Had the U.S. not acted the entire M.E. would have fallen to the USSR.