Begin Rant
People here talk all the time about how the world is deteriorating. Among other things, Boko Haram now owns quite a lot of Nigeria, sex slaves that were once schoolgirls, and is intent on creating its own caliphate, Libya is in civil war and now the jihadists have captured 11 airplanes from the Tripoli airport, Israel has tried to eliminate much of the terrorist group Hamas and in doing so has killed many innocent victims, Syria is in a state of civil war in which Assad has been aided by the terrorist group Hezbollah and by the state of Iran, jihadist groups have blossomed from this civil war with some terrorist groups similar to al Qaeda and one extreme group now calling itself the Islamic State which has captured more territory and may now have a larger army than Great Britain. The Islamic State has also committed genocide when dealing with Yazidis, forcing them to become Muslim and making the women into sex slaves. Some of these Yazidi women have committed suicide to escape this.
Add to that the fact that Iran, the most modern state in the Middle East, is still under the grips of extreme Shiite Muslims intent on pursuing the bomb (which is an existential threat to Israel) and Putin has invaded Ukraine. There's also a bit of a conflict in the South China Sea between China and Japan for dominance.
We in the West have fought this with a few airstrikes, some humanitarian aid, and some arms shipments. Many in the war-weary West led by spineless leaders want the Middle Eastern governments to fight this war on my own. Many say that IS and Boko Haram's days are numbered. They may be right. But their cause and their fights are not.
Many want the Middle East to burn itself out, like fires do. However, threats like this do not "burn out." Shiites and Sunnis may fight each other to no end, minorities may be wiped out, but someone will win. I'm willing to bet that the groups that do win will be the most dedicated groups. Those groups are not the governments. Furthermore, in these wars that will make the Middle East "burn," many of our men will join terrorist groups created who have animosities towards us. They are not simply interested in fighting each other, because as they have stated repeatedly that they want to attack us. Is it too hard not to believe them?
This isn't a regional conflict that will "burn itself out." It's turned into a global war.
Some people claim that if we interfere we will merely create more enemies, more fires, in the Middle East. Therefore, if we interfere, we will only make the fire worse. A light footprint, therefore, is best. In countering this theory, a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt may suffice, "Suppose my neighbor's home catches fire, and I have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant, I may help him to put out his fire...I don't say to him before that operation, "Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it." Yet we are asking for $15 before even contemplating aiding these people. And we aren't using a garden hose--we're using a trickling sink. I would think that our trickling sink would make EVERYONE, including the governments within the Middle East, angry with us. We've asked the Sauds to send in their air force. That's nice, but the Sauds have to worry that their troops will defect and that, in sending their planes to Iraq, they will make themselves more vulnerable to many of their people who have fought in the civil war. The Middle Eastern governments need a leader to unite them. The three stable governments are Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Iran. One is Sunni, one is Jewish, one is Shia. Plus, Saudi Arabia is the center of Wahhabi Islam, the fundamentalist approach to Islam which is the foundation of these extreme Muslim beliefs, Israel is opposed by every state within the Middle East, and Iran funds Hezbollah.
The only leaders capable of uniting these countries against these radical Muslim groups live here in the West. We in the war weary West must become involved in these wars because if we don't the fire will consume us.
End Rant
