Another factor is obviously Israel. Our proxy (some would say they have more power over our ME foriegn policy than that of a mere proxy, but that's another topic).Then there is the PNAC manifesto, further complicating matters.
Hezbollah in Syria (through Iran, if I'm not mistaken; the players on the board there get confusing at times) is on the side of Assad.
Hezbollah and Israel are of course deadly foes.
So on one side, we have that. On the other we have the petrodollar (our bit via Saudi Arabia).
Then you have a bungling administration that draws "red lines" he is unwilling to back up, fucking up on the job as usual.
Quote:
The petrodollar system originated in the early 1970s in the wake of the Bretton Woods collapse. President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, feared that the abandonment of the international gold standard under the Bretton Woods arrangement (combined with a growing US trade deficit, and massive debt associated with the ongoing Vietnam War) would cause a decline in the relative global demand of the U.S. dollar.[2] In a series of meetings, the United States — represented by then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — and the Saudi royal family made an agreement. The United States would offer military protection for Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, and in return the Saudi's would price their oil sales exclusively in United States dollars (in other words, the Saudis were to refuse all other currencies, except the U.S. dollar, as payment for their oil exports).
By 1975, all of the oil-producing nations of OPEC had agreed to price their oil in dollars and to invest surplus oil proceeds in U.S. government debt securities in exchange for similar offers by the U.S
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrodollar_warfare
Note that evey single country we have attacked has threatened or made moves to trade in something other than the dollar; Iran is, of course, taking steps towards establishing their own bourse.
Connect the dots.
We are willing to at the very least arm the "rebels", who are mainly Islamist radicals and terrorists that excecute women and children (I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn the were the ones that used the CWs honestly) and are linked with al-qaeda. On it's face, it seems bizzare, but when you add it all up, the deals we have with both Israel and the Saudi's (maintaining the standard of the petrodollar), you can begin to see our governments motives.
I understand, academically at least, the part about maintaining the petrodollar, but I don't understand what Israel offers us in return for our eternal backup. And they are a huge factor in our ME policy.
