I don't think this phenomenon is limited to the Middle East, but otherwise I totally agree.
I think Americans have a hard time accepting the fact that the U.S. military is not capable of solving most problems. Whenever something horrible happen, people say "we must do something", which for some reason mostly seems to mean using the military to kill someone in another country. There is rarely any serious thought about whether such killing is likely to improve things over the long run. I think the record is fairly clear that the opposite is the case.
(Come to think of it, the above paragraph would also apply if you substituted the word "Israelis" for "Americans." In fact, it's a little worse for Israelis because the people Americans slaughter tend to be in far away places whereas Israel tends to kill people right next door. So those negative long term consequences tend to bite Israel a bit harder than the U.S. We, unlike the Israelis, don't have to live next to the messes we create.)
I think Americans have a hard time accepting the fact that the U.S. military is not capable of solving most problems. Whenever something horrible happen, people say "we must do something", which for some reason mostly seems to mean using the military to kill someone in another country. There is rarely any serious thought about whether such killing is likely to improve things over the long run. I think the record is fairly clear that the opposite is the case.
(Come to think of it, the above paragraph would also apply if you substituted the word "Israelis" for "Americans." In fact, it's a little worse for Israelis because the people Americans slaughter tend to be in far away places whereas Israel tends to kill people right next door. So those negative long term consequences tend to bite Israel a bit harder than the U.S. We, unlike the Israelis, don't have to live next to the messes we create.)
