Yes I understand that democracy building was only our nominal reason for being in the middle east. But when it come to Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan we did, as a

Yes I understand that democracy building was only our nominal reason for being in the middle east. But when it come to Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan we did, as a matter of fact, both directly and covertly, try to systematically eradicate authoriarian regimes and general extremism. We have attempted social engineering in hostile countries like what I mentioned previously, or through movenments like the Arab spring, or through economic sanctioning (i.e. Iran, Russia, North Korea) and have achieved nothing. While the genuinness of America's intentions are debatable, I don't think it's debatable that America carried out the largest, most expansive democracy building efforts in the middle east that has been or will likely ever be attempted.