Please. At the time of the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, it wasn't even a nation state in the modern sense, it was a crater that was periodically claim

Please. At the time of the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, it wasn't even a nation state in the modern sense, it was a crater that was periodically claimed by one faction or another. The US entry was as strategically useful to as many of these factions as it was harmful. The enthusiastic support from numerous factions for American intervention is well documented. Likewise the same can be said for half of the states in the region, you can list the factions just waiting for the US Marines to come in and do their dirty work for them, and sometimes these factions include AQ. Look at Libya...we "liberated" it much to the enthusiastic applause and support of the same people we tried to bomb to perdition after 9/11. We're in danger of the same mistake in Syria...the world can't abide the Assad regime, yet the rebels draw support from Islamists that are hostile to US interests. We're not the good guys, but there are also no good guys.