re: America at War: US starts air strikes on Syria

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people fighting in the Middle East.

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Not really. The region was relatively peaceful under the Ottomans. The inciting incident was the 2003 Iraq War. Before then, between the end of WWII and 2002, there were something like 48 civil conflicts, resulting in around 2.5 million deaths. Since the 2003 war, there have been around 24 civil conflicts, resulting in the same number of deaths. People don't remember who made up the opposition to the 2003 Iraq War, but Republicans and conservatives were certainly gung-ho about it. The side effects of the Iraq War are going to last a long time too, and the US establishment is going to actively suppress any view that suggests the Iraq War was utterly terrible in the long and short term.