America's industrial-military complex and most notably its oil companies, have an abiding interest in the Middle East, for the obvious reason, that there is plenty of oil there. Unlike, say a country like Japan, or Germany, or Italy, or France, America has a large domestic oil capacity as well as the technological knowhow to extract, process, produce, distribute, and to utilize our domestic petroleum resources. Reuters.com estimated that the United States became, once again, the biggest oil producer in the world in 2013, because of our success in extracting oil from shale formations and the sophisticated use of horizontal drilling techniques. This doesn't mean that the United States no longer imports oil, but it does mean, that the United States essentially has the means to accommodate its energy needs without the necessity of the Middle east, if not right at this moment, certainly in the near future, especially if it made it a policy to do so.
America spends an inordinate amount of time, money, and participation in way too many wars or wars of another name, in the Middle East, of which most of this ill-advised activity could be abandoned without materially impacting the United States as a whole. Forgetting, for the moment, the moral right or wrong, that our military incursions involve in the Middle East, the savings in money, materials, life, and good will by America simply allowing the Middle East to determine for itself, what it does or does not do, would be of immense benefit for not only America, but for the world at large. The fact of the matter is, if it wasn't for the oil, America would be content to treat the Middle East with benign neglect, but the oil and the lust for profits has corrupted our motives.
It is high time for the American policy in the Middle East to change and to change dynamically. The Middle East is not in our historic sphere of influence, nor is there any good reasons why America insists that it must be the world's policeman, subsequently getting itself involved in every domestic or border or civil dispute within the Middle East, as it really isn't necessary, nor does it often help to produce either a better or safer or more just world.
The continual involvement and interference of America and its corporations in the Middle East, has served to inflame passions against our nation, and Western nations, in general. America fears that if it should withdraw its foreign aid, its foreign investment, and its military might, that within this vacuum some other country or group of countries, would assert their power and influence against the Middle East. What of it? America has been intimately involved whether directly, or indirectly, in Middle Eastern politics since the conclusion of World War II, and during this entire time, has not made the Middle Eastern world, safer, more democratic, or more just. It has, however, provided great profits for certain American-based corporations as well as feeding well the military-industrial complex.
America is in a fortunate place, it has great wealth, knowhow, as well as great natural resources, so it does not need Middle Eastern oil to thrive. It lusts for Middle Eastern oil, because it lusts for profit, lusts for the expansion of a military that is already way too large, and lusts to have dominion of every corner of the world. Unfortunately, for America, it forgets that to ensure domestic tranquility, unnecessary forays into foreign territory seldom brings peace, justice, or the American way.