Steven Gaghan interpreted Robert Baer really, really well in this scene right here. There's a world of difference between "abandoning" and "not assuming conservatorship of." The reason we care oh-so-very-much-more about the Middle East than we do about sub-Saharan Africa is that the Middle East has oil. That's it. That's all. Without oil, the Middle East is a bunch of isolationist tribes attempting to lead their lives without any real involvement with the West. Reza Aslan's "How To Win A Cosmic War" points out pretty succinctly that the "Near Enemy" matters far more than the "Far Enemy" where for "Near Enemy" substitute "those fucking Sunnis down the valley" and for "Far Enemy" substitute "The Great Satan The United States of America." One pays lip service to hating on the far enemy while one fights jihad against the near enemy. We have no stakes in the sectarian stuff. However, it allows us to proxy our way to dominance. That simple fact covers the Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, if not before. The reason we devote so much attention to Israel is it's a colony. It's an embassy. It's a bunch of Europeans, with European heritage, establishing a toe-hold in a region we know culturally from bible stories (that happens to have LOTS OF OIL). It gives us a position to destabilize the middle east to prevent the return of a Caliphate. Speaking from a purely machiavellian point of view, it is in our best interests to keep the Middle East destabilized and warring. As soon as they unite, we go from "Far Enemy" to "Near Enemy." We will continue to meddle in the Middle East until the sun is a cinder. We will maximize bloodshed and discord. And we will do so for the betterment of the United States of America, because that is the sausage-making of foreign policy. "The purpose of NATO is to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down". - Lord Ismay France, England and Russia all did their level best to destabilize the Ottoman Empire for purposes of trade. We now continue to do so for much the same reasons. I'm a firm believer in peace on earth, good will toward men. I've had a subscription to Saudi Aramco World for 8 years now. But I recognize that nobody wants war in the Middle East quite so much as the Middle East and that attempting to pacify it for purely humanitarian purposes is deadly and foolish.