CMV: The US should let Saudi Arabia and Iran have the Middle East. Terrorism is a result of our presence and we're going to war with Iran.

The US presence in the Middle East is causing radicalization and terrorism. The US is responsible for the deaths of millions of people in the Middle East in the last two decades alone, and is the main factor in destabilizing the region to a point where groups such as ISIS thrive. Whether it be through regime change, war and occupations, or through weapons sales to countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel, the US has caused a lot of suffering in the Middle East.<br><br>All this bloodshed has been for nothing, as the region is worse off than it was before the US got involved. Osama Bin Laden himself said that the US' presence in the Middle East and meddling in the politics of countries there is what caused him to hate America. The part where he says that the US' support for Israel is also a reason for his hatred is especially important now, as the US support for Israel is one of the main reasons that so many people in the Middle East hate the US. <br><br>Even the CIA has said that the presence of the US in the Middle East and the US' actions there are used as a rallying cry and recruitment tool for terrorists. It's not a coincidence that Al-Qaeda made its burst into the mainstream through the 9/11 attacks, the year before the US began relief efforts in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion. It's no coincidence that ISIS became prominent in the power vacuum left by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It's not a coincidence that the growth of terrorist groups in the Middle East has coincided with the US' burst of interference in Middle Eastern politics following the end of the Cold War. ISIS even has a whole section of their recruitment propaganda that mentions how the presence of the US and other Western countries in the Middle East is a reason to join:<br><br>"The wisest answer to this (American presence) is what was done by the heroes of 9/11, Boston and Paris, along with other operations which shook and harmed Western countries."<br><br>ISIS also mentions the US' support for Israel, as did Osama Bin Laden, in their recruitment propaganda. <br><br>Given this, I think the US should let Saudi Arabia and Iran fight it out without US interference, especially if the US goes to war with Iran. The US has been at war in the Middle East and continuously present there in some form or another for the last 20 years, and still has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the US goes to war with Iran, then it would be impossible for us to stay out of the Middle East, and would only make things worse. We would compound suffering and destabilization in the region, and make our relationship with the rest of the world even worse. <br><br>The US presence in the Middle East is hard to support, morally, politically, or logically. It's dumb, and I think we should bring our troops home and end our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.