None of the U.S. Middle East policies make any sense at all.  It's been one invented excuse after another:  Afghanistan was invaded in order to search for Osama Bin Laden - but he was in Pakistan.  Iraq was invaded because they were supposed to have "weapons of mass destruction" - but none were ever found.  The government of Libya was destroyed because they were trying to put down a rebellion by heavily armed rebels. Rebel weapons were supplied by "outside" powers.   A few years ago, al_Qaeda was fading away, so it was as if someone just had to create the Islamic State as an excuse to reinvigorate the need for more military interventions.