Listen, I'd be thrilled to stay out of most of the international conflicts that we get into, so I'm certainly not an advocate of any of this.  But the reality is we are the free world's police force whether we like it or not.  That's why many of those countries don't spend like we do.  If we didn't, they'd have no choice but to spend more. 

People globally may view us negatively, but we get the first call from anyone facing issues they don't know how to solve regardless of what that issue is.  You cannot expect us to bail countries out when they are in trouble then expect us to walk away allowing whatever it was to happen again.  We're going to protect our interests.  You can't have one without the other.  Not the way things are now or have been since WWI.  Regardless of why we were in the Middle East, just leaving wasn't an option.  Obama wanted to do it and knew he couldn't.  If we're going to be everybody's big brother, there's a cost that goes along with it.