As a quality engineer in automotive at the time, I was trying to book a flight on Sept 11th to fly from Michigan to Graz Austria to resolve a customer's complaint. The admin could not seem to get a flight booked online. Someone walking through the area asked what we were doing and when told, said "you won't get a flight. haven't you heard the news?" So we turned on a nearby TV to see the towers burning! Our contacts in Austria called and were crying and told us they would take care of the issue.

We certainly have meddled for a long time. But much of the issues in the middle east began with France and England.

I do think that disengaging from the region will NOT resolve the disputes however. But we need to change the nature OF our engagement.

On a similar notion, when conservatives complain about "the border crisis" on our USA southern border and illegal immigration, they do so out of a narrow political view and calculation, never once considering how we, the USA, caused the disruptions and dislocations in Central America with our support, over the last century, of dictators and death squads, not to mention some 100 military incursions and invasions into Haiti, Cuba, Nicauragua, Panama, etc! Our policies are a direct CAUSE of the attempts to migrate to the USA.

Finally, even some progressives (sadly) seem to be willing to write off Ukraine to Russian aggression citing our blatantly illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Two things can be true- that our invasion was wrong AND so is Putin's.