We entered Afghanistan with rage and the need for vengeance in our hearts.
The reasons for preemptive war with Iraq were clouded by a miasma of lies.
13 years later, we are supposedly "leaving" with responsibility intact.
We know how many of our troop and contractors have died the "collateral damage" is much harder to find estimates range from a quarter of a million lives on up. How many total wounded there are is unknown, how many lives broken unspoken.
Soon NATO will have "responsibly" completed its mission in Afghanistan and the ceremony will be held in secret from fear of Taliban attack. The government there is in tatters.
As for Iraq and the wars spill over into Pakistan, well the news is full of mission accomplished these days. The remnants of the Arab Spring are there for all the world to see in Syria, Egypt and Libya. Our friends in the Gulf still fund terrorism around the world, oppress women and use slave labor to build their ivory towers.
What did we gain from this neocon dream of American interventionism?
Tarnished with the stench of war crimes and torture, tens [if not hundreds] of thousands of veterans wounded both physically and mentally to go alongside the coffins.
What have the people who were meant to great us as liberators with flowers? Their blood fills pages of newspapers every day.
Our [the west] historical misadventures in the region, whom we support and how we support them go back at least to the fall of Ottoman Empire. Have we ever really considered the results of this interference completely? Have we ever considered ourselves accountable in any way?
We have now the "War on Terror" which seems to absolve us of any crime and immune from any responsibility in the name of our own security we can be judge, jury and executioner. We can imprison without trial and who can with hand on their hearts say "that we no longer torture"?
Can we say we have improved the world in any way? Some would say results matter.
Has terrorism and the accompanying sectarian hatred been reduced in any way?
Is anyone really safer?
Can we tell friend from foe?
Have we any inkling of what the end game will be?
Still we allow those who proposed preemptive war, those that ordered torture, those that want further war to grab the microphone and run with it without consequence for their actions.
Was this really the best "we" could do and was it our only course of action?
Have we really come to grips with the historical consequences of our actions in the region. The support we gave Saddam Hussein, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Muhammad Anwar El Sadat the Taliban and the mujaheddin etc etc when it was profitable to do so, were they all worth it?
Our arms trade supports all sides both directly and indirectly, we sell to the good revolutionaries, governments and our purported "friends" in the regions, who then in turn resell to the bad revolutionaries; then "we" sit back and watch with horror the consequences of this most profitable trades.
How many innocent lives have been lost and broken through our decisions yet still the hawkish voices have not be silenced, to them only more of the same will do.
Will supporting the Kurds against ISIS really have the desired outcome and do we really know what that is anyway? Will toppling Bashar Hafez al-Assad be the end of the carnage?
Some will say but we cannot sit idly by and watch the bloodshed and I would agree with all my heart that the goal of helping the abused and oppressed is a noble one, but I am left with a few questions.
Is the situation better or worse for all our interventions?
Do we know who our "friends" are?
Who are we helping in reality?
Was it worth it?
If we cannot answer these questions perhaps it is time to rethink what we do now and in the future.
If we can, we may not like the answer.
This diary concerns only the Middle East but we can see the pattern elsewhere.