I'll answer your question, but first: I'll quietly note that my point about nationalist priors has been taken. 2nd: "meddle" is the wrong word. Mideast factions *invite* the US, just as less powerful factions have always invited more powerful factions to ally w/ them against 1/n

their enemies. (This has nothing to do with borders or nations, btw; history is one big example of polities or would-be polities obtaining help from bigger players regardless of their borders or nationality.) 3rd: the US has made mistakes, but the Mideast without it would be 2/n

a bloody mess. The reason Cairo, Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Baghdad, Tehran, and Ankara all prefer (or preferred at 1 point in time) a Mideast w/ the US to a Mideast w/o it is American ability to settle conflicts for good if necessary (Germany and Japan in 1945). Now, to answer your 3/n