Rahere... " Self-righteous beyond belief, " That is a really broad brush you paint with, and is one of my peeves about how US policy is described in simple terms...

What we do is very much a "damned if you do and damned if you don't' situation. We get just as much criticism for not interfering more as we do for getting involved. "It all depends on whose ox is being gored".

I'd hate to be the one who decides whether to directly confront ISIS or to even arm & train rebels at all... anywhere.

I'll grant that some of our loudmouth hawks..(such as John McCain) have never seen an issue they couldn't 'solve' by throwing troops at it... and after the Iraq debacle, it took a lot of careful 'backing out'.

In the same way, there are many who feel that 'now that guns are everywhere, I'd better get MY share of them'.... making the stupid assumption like the %$#^*& NRA says, that "the best way to deal with a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun". I can cite 27 examples that disprove that... but..........

(You know, it is pretty wearing arguing with those I basically agree with as well as countering those I firmly disagree with. 7 years of Philosophy in college have made me suspicious of all overly-generalized positions)