Why the Middle East?

Leon Hadar writes for The National Interest an article in which he questions why the U.S. should have any active role in the Middle East. Our efforts in the region have led to repeated failure, at great expense in both money and lives. And we're no more popular there today than we were twenty years ago. 

He is not alone in this view.

Most Americans (snip) are now telling pollsters that they want to see U.S. troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible, are opposed to new U.S.-led regime change and nation building in the Middle East, and are skeptical about the utility of Washington taking charge of the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”

In recent decades American foreign policy in the Middle East could be characterized as having followed Albert Einstein's definition of insanity:

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Source: Brainy Quote.