'@txag70'
Problem is though the main country in question is Syria, so um...that one's more or less off out hands.
Syria spent the Cold War as a Russian proxy, so they were outside our influence (unlike yes Iraq). The recent upheaval there came from native fractures. Even ISIS while in their infancy a product of the Iraq war...only became as it is because of the Syrian chaos.
This one lands at the feet of Russia, Iran, and kinda sorta China a little bit.
I do think Obama has been sloppy and inconclusive in his reactions to this war, the infamous red line stuff for instance.
Also in a much longer back sense this is the fault of...France! And the UK, in that these countries are very poorly organized post-Ottoman frankensteins.
That being said I think you're getting at an important point. The Cold War was an ugly ugly thing where the West and Soviet bloc played chess using the rest of the world as pieces, leading to lots of terrible things in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middeast.
Now that the Cold War has ended it's remarkable to note the progress three of these regions have made. Many dictatorships collapsed once American or Soviet backing vanished, Latin America is now nearly all democratic aside from Cuba for instance. Where it once was a land of American backed dictators.
The one exception? Where international relations still resembles the Cold War? Is the Middeast. Where the West still openly supports dictators, where tiny hot wars pop up in response to cold wars among higher powers, and all these such things.
And while yes the US and western powers hold some blame, let's not forget the local powers. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Who have meddled and abused nearly as much among their tinier neighbors. The latter two in particular are playing out their own miniature cold war as enemies.
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'@txag70'
Problem is though the main country in question is Syria, so um...that one's more or less off out hands.
Syria spent the Cold War as a Russian proxy, so they were outside our influence (unlike yes Iraq). The recent upheaval there came from native fractures. Even ISIS while in their infancy a product of the Iraq war...only became as it is because of the Syrian chaos.
This one lands at the feet of Russia, Iran, and kinda sorta China a little bit.
I do think Obama has been sloppy and inconclusive in his reactions to this war, the infamous red line stuff for instance.
Also in a much longer back sense this is the fault of...France! And the UK, in that these countries are very poorly organized post-Ottoman frankensteins.
That being said I think you're getting at an important point. The Cold War was an ugly ugly thing where the West and Soviet bloc played chess using the rest of the world as pieces, leading to lots of terrible things in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middeast.
Now that the Cold War has ended it's remarkable to note the progress three of these regions have made. Many dictatorships collapsed once American or Soviet backing vanished, Latin America is now nearly all democratic aside from Cuba for instance. Where it once was a land of American backed dictators.
The one exception? Where international relations still resembles the Cold War? Is the Middeast. Where the West still openly supports dictators, where tiny hot wars pop up in response to cold wars among higher powers, and all these such things.
And while yes the US and western powers hold some blame, let's not forget the local powers. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Who have meddled and abused nearly as much among their tinier neighbors. The latter two in particular are playing out their own miniature cold war as enemies.