Since nothing in the Middle East appears to make any sense, we can only ask ourselves what is really going on.
I've got to believe that the problem is not the various players in the Middle East itself, but all the surrounding powers:
Russia, China, the E.U.

It would always have been absurdly easy to have warned Syria and then smashed then into ruins. Don't forget how Reagan fled in utter disgrace with the Marine barracks bombing, with its hundreds dead and its immediate legitimacy for Hezbollah. (If you want to blame Carter for establishing the legitimacy of the Iranian mullahs, you must equally blame Reagan for granting Hezbollah legitimacy.)

There is something about the Middle East that ties the U.S.A. into complete knots. If the explanation is not a shadow game between the USA and other powers, then the only other explanation is that widespread "stability" is thought to be required for secure oil production, and secure transport of oil. Therefore, short term stability at all costs may simply be the name of the game. It's not truly stable, of course, but who seems to care?

So, the thuggish regimes of the Middle East play the powers off of each other. Any one country - the USA - gains too much strength? No problem, you draw the others into a coalition to knock em back down - and the E.U., Russia, and China, supporting Syria and Iran, succeed in doing so.

The oil keeps flowing, and the terrible, bloody mess rolls on. No one country can change the equation. Should we give George Bush accolades for trying? Or curse him for failing so spectacularly? (And make no mistake - Russia and China have scarcely BEGUN to ensure we don't succeed in Iraq. If you're looking only at Iran and Syria, you're not looking towards the REAL problem.

The joker in this card game is Iran's nuclear ambitions and Israel. Russia and China don't mind raising an ante where, if they lose, the result a nuclear holocaust over Tel Aviv. Russia and China simply do not care about the terrible risk they are running here. Born in revolution, legitimized by Carter, supported further by Reagan, and now supported by Russia and China, the mullahs of Iran are extraordinarily dangerous to Israel and to this so-called short term stability in the Middle East.

What a mess.