If there is one thing I hope we have learned from the present conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that US involvement in the Middle East can have no positive outcome. Involvement by pretty much ANYONE in the Middle East can have no positive outcome. When you’re dealing with governments and groups led by people who lack the slightest shred of common thought patterns, you just can’t expect to be able to play in their sandbox.
I’m not completely convinced that an immediate and complete pullout from Iraq and Afghanistan would be the wrong course, but it would certainly be a PR disaster… not that we haven’t had that all along. I doubt the long-term outcome will be one bit different whether we’re there another few years or not. If we leave now, it just means the whole place collapses into a bloody anarchy now instead of a few years from now. Let the crazy bastards establish their training camps; when we find them, simply obliterate them with a B2 mission. We won’t get them all, but we’re not doing that now anyway.
I’m not one to say we should cater to world popular opinion every time. There are certainly instances in which we need to act in our own self interest. However, it has become painfully obvious that there is no socially or morally acceptable solution to the radical, terrorist Islamo-fascist movement that seems to be permeating the entire African continent. Lacking the means to make things better in the long term, perhaps we should simply get the hell out and let them kill each other to their hearts’ content. We’re obviously not doing much long term good as it is.