That said, the incompetency of Dubya and Obozo has tapped us out financially and in terms of hardware and personnel.
Therefore: no interest in intervening in Syria (let them slaughter each other and drain THEIR $$$$$ and manpower.
Iraq became a disaster because we just HAD to leave troops there to nationbuild. If we have reason to attack a country, do it from the sky, kill people, confiscate or break their things force them to pay every nickel of expense by seizing oil resources as necessary and get the hell out. Rinse and repeat wth increasing intensity as necessary. Sodamn Insane should not have been allowed to survive Poppy Bush's War but Poppy was too interested in Let's Make a Deal rather than stretching the bastard's neck.
Libya: See Syria.
Ukraine: Depends on whether we can get along with Putin. We should insist on freedom for the long-suffering Ukrainian people especially if diplomatic assurances to Putin will suffice as the price.
Iran: We can do this soon or we can wait until they can and will nuke Israel and the US, which they have vowed to do. Me? I want to abrogate Obozo's phony treaty, destroy each and every Iranian nuclear weapons facility, demand an end to the rule of the mullahs OR if they won't do that, nuke Iran off the face of the earth. That is why we have Ohio Class submarines. Just the kind of boy I am. As a bonus, John Kerry and Algore and Obongo will have a collective nervous breakdown over what it might do for their "global climate change" fantasies.
This pretty well tells the story of Syria.
Now, I have read some articles from sources who basically hate "U.S. military hegemony in the ME", knocking the idea that a Qatar-to-Turkey pipeline is a big deal, but, simple common sense pretty well destroys those articles. When what was discussed at which meeting does not invalidate the underlying situation.
One might wonder why the Qatar-to-Turkey pipeline could not go through Northern Iraq and Eastern Turkey. In fact, that route is on some other maps as "Plan B", but, the US has pretty well screwed THAT up by allowing Iran's resurgence and the drift of Iraq toward Iran. Disputes with the Kurds may factor in too? The terrain is rougher as well, but not impossible.
Now, there are alternatives, but they have higher transportation costs. Unfortunately, no one seems to also consider the monetary costs of this war. Perhaps it was assumed Assad would not be difficult to knock off. To the Euro's I would ask, is a little cheaper gas worth 400,000 dead in Syria, and hordes of refugees entering Europe?
One practicality (I’m in partial agreement with you):
“Taking their oil” requires occupation over a considerable period of time.