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Our whole country is founded and populated by fixers. Our great-grandparents, our parents even some of us, left Europe or Mexico or China to build a better life. They wanted something more than they had, and were willing to take the chance to create it. Even African-Americans, brought in chains, did not leave after slavery. They stayed, at least partially, because the American Dream is based on a belief that with enough hard work, determination and support anything can be chanced, even the fortunes of a child of slavery.
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So we, as a people - as a philosophy -as an ideal, suck at admitting there are things we can't do. Hell, we went to the moon. We built a bomb that would destroy the world then stopped using it. We created the internet and took credit for maned flight, the steam engine and computers. What we didn't make, we often made better.
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So it pains me to say, there isn't shit we can to in the Middle East right now to make it better.
We invaded and over threw a dictator in Iraq. Set up a government with power-sharing - and they are now in the middle of a killing spree we can't stop.
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We tactically helped Egypt usher out a dictator and tried to help a Muslim Government in Egypt that ended up killing and driving out thousands of Coptic Christians. Then quietly watched as a Military over threw that Government and hoped for a better one to follow - only to watch them slaughter hundreds of people this week.
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In Libya we gave air support to help support a new, more inclusive government. We have all moved on, while Libya is in the middle of recriminations and militant attacks. No new government seems to be close.
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In Syria we sat out and Assad has murdered thousands of protesters. Syria has descended into a civil war between a dictator and Jihadists.
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In Yemen, we have gone all in, used drones to curb militants, but they too have descended into a war between a dictator (albeit one we like) and Jihadists.
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In Israel and Palestine we try to broker a peace between two groups of people who have no respect for each other, nor do they value each other's lives. In the 35 years we have been doing this, nothing much has changed. That's not a recipe for success.
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Intervene, Invade, Support, Ignore, Cajole - we, as Americans, have almost no effect on the outcome in this region. There is, quite honestly, no good answer. And anyone who tells you different is blowing smoke up your ass.
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As we are pushed to do something in Syria, remember what good our do something did in Iraq or Libya or Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. We can't fix everything everywhere.