http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war [login to see] .html
The solution to the Middle East is to seek energy independence so we can drop our "alliance" with the Gulf Countries and Israel. Stop buying Gulf oil so we can stop caring about their wacky politics. Syria is our own doing as well, over a Qatar natural gas pipeline.
It's like quicksand, the more you struggle, the deeper you go. At this point we can't let governments fall to terrorists, but once we finish them off we really need to stop meddling in their politics. Their only leverage is oil and gas. If we push hard for energy independence they have no leverage and we're good.
If we can produce NASA we can produce energy independence.