I am going to go on a rant as I am somewhat intoxicated and at this point in time am not flinching at the replies that will be coming. Fuck it as they say. But, if the leadership of the United States would have focused on Afghanistan in the early 2000's, spending half of what was spent in Iraq and instead focused on creating a country that was free of any kind of extremist islamist control, then Syria would not have happened. Here's why:

Point the first) The individuals that conceived and participated in 9/11 (never forget) had ties to Afghanistan. It was Afghanistan that Al-Queda operated out of. So focus on Afghanistan, mile by mile drive the islamist out. Set up a military base or fort or whatever every couple of miles ensuring a U.S. position forward of major cities and perhaps becoming in a couple of years places of trade and commerce (you want to spread freedom, spread micro breweries) where people feel safe and protected. Institute U.S. style public education and U.S. style (hopefully better than Flint Michigan) infrastructure. Most importantly, set up love songs on the radio and women and men wearing and thinking what they want. Tell the local warlords to fuck off and slowly, emphasis on slowly, rebuild the country's infrastructure. Take half the money spent on Iraq(spend the rest maybe not letting public water systems in the U.S. be poisonous), use that to teach trades and build water pipes and sewage, get Afghanistan operating at a modern level atleast with infrastructure and safety in as big of an area as possible. Fight and defend those areas like mad motherfucking dogs. Pull no punches. In 2006, Afghanistan would be a functioning democracy that was a vacation destination for everybody who wanted to smoke some opium or high grade hashish while also completely flipping from backwards(we will do whatever the people with the guns that interact with us on a daily basis tells us to) to progressive(yeah you got a gun but I got rights motherfucker) in the middle east region based on nothing but GDP and living standard. Does the U.S. need to get all up in Afghanistan's shit? No, but it needs to be understood that the U.S. has no plans of leaving. Why?

Point the second) The Arab Spring was a point in history that was coming, it was a force of nature that would not be stopped. Like the wind blowing or the waves cresting, it was going to happen. If the U.S. would have let it be known that we were going to be in the region for the indefinite future, and society changed in Afghanistan, then now the U.S. is not an occupier, but a partner. Not an empire enforcing its empire but protectors of the people that meant well. yes, we could kill everyone but we do not want to, we just want to be friends. Like the seventy pound pittbull that will fuck it up, but really just wants to wag its tale and be happy. If Afghanistan works, then now those that also want a secular democracy in the middle east and wants to return to their place in tech and math and society are not doing it alone, there is a hub, there is a location that presents what society, politics, and the military can achieve without any islamist influence. This is important because now Turkey stays the secularist democracy it has always been. Tunisia becomes a secularist democracy, Oman takes center stage as how a muslim country can be run without any fundamentalism, Syria is forced to recognize the christian, muslim and atawan(?) diversity of its people. The same with Iraq, with the bonus that Iraq is not a warzone, but a populist movement connecting sunni, shia, christian and kurd together as part of the Arab Spring. The U.S. can then present a stance that any people standing for freedom will be protected by the U.S. That firing on civilians will not be tolerated and that their voices will be heard. But 'Murica doesn't even listen to its own people. True, but the current state of affairs has been achieved because there was an enemy. If the whole vibe could have been set up not to have an enemy, but a bully that needed to be set straight by that weird kid that nobody really liked was big enough that nobody bothered him, but grinned wildly and and made frantic jokes trying to fit in, then we go back to the sentiment that had Iranians burning candles for 9/11. But, there is a third thing that needed to happen, which sadly did not.

Point the Third) The 'Murican people failed themselves. Rather than compare exit polls to votes, those that were rebublicans said "we won" and those that were democrats said "I can't believe it". Bullshit won because bullshit got 'Muricans to identify as republican or democrat and not American. One side was happy democracy was loopholed because it meant they won, they were right, and being right was better than being true, and the other side quietly whispered to each other "What?" big eyed and confused, and cowardly slinked back to work or university, never again made a fuss. And f you think that Occupy was a fuss, the Polish people fucking rioted because they had nothing but a wif of bullshit the day after elections. And Occupy was nothing but graduates trying to get internships. You want to shake it up, you build a fire on wall street, you don't hold meetings in the lobby of Bank of America. But atleast it was a carthartic rise in the inevitable fall.