The reason why America will never ever win a war in the Middle East ....

heck, let's make that "America will never EVER win a war in a Muslim majority country." 

This is a very thoughtful article and worth reading in its entirety.

Marco Carnelos at MiddleEastEye
Why America can't understand the Middle East

A recent editorial in the Washington Post, written by columnist David Ignatius, offers a shining example of the United States' difficulty in understanding today's world and, most of all, the Arab world.

Ignatius conveys a genuine concern for "The Unintended Consequences of US Disengagement in the Middle East", quoting worried comments made by a member of the Arab elite allied with the US.

The journalist expresses uneasiness about the fact that "American power and values won’t matter the way they once did". His position is steeped in the typical intellectual milieu of American exceptionalism, a position based on the hardwired assumption that the condition for an ideal existence and a stable world order are ensured only when American power and values are strong and shared.

Binary thinking

The article emphasises that, at the moment, there would be "…no constituency in the US for…doing more in the Middle East". This alleged disengagement apparently began with the Obama administration, but now is strongly attributed, and blamed on, Trump.

Leaving aside the fact that, based on recent history, a significant part of Middle Eastern population would object to the "United States doing more in the Middle East", it is what follows that is really astonishing.

Quoting the same Arab source, Ignatius affirms that US disengagement could imply that Arab nations will need to do things on their own. So far nothing wrong, except that, for Ignatius and his source, Arab nations going it alone has only one meaning: "closer relations with Russia and China". Another depressing and frustrating example of Western binary thinking.....