There are multiple deep risks associated with defaulting to this approach. They include the inability to influence outcomes so that they advance or protect vital U.S. interests, the problems associated with having allied armies inadequate to tackling the problem at hand trying and then failing to achieve a goal that might have been achievable with greater U.S. involvement, and the danger of being forced by expediency to support or align ourselves with bad actors, thus making matters materially worse for us and our allies…

Those who say it is high time we realize the region is not our problem must recognize that we have been lucky so far. Unrest has not impacted oil prices, but that does not mean it won’t. Unrest has not led to an arms race — but just as the Iran nuclear deal can be seen as imposing useful constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, it can also be seen as defining anew what is acceptable for other nations in terms of laying the foundations for their own nuclear weapons capability. Should the result be in a few years that the Saudis and others are near-nuclear and then they or the Iranians decide to go the next step, it should go without saying that the stakes for the world and for the United States could be very high indeed.

The current conflict in the Middle East has not yet spread its costs in dramatic ways to other regions, but when foreign fighters return home, it surely will. It has not impacted other future conflicts as it might, as it could in a decade or two when we are no longer trusted in the region but China or others hold more sway. These conflicts have not spread to Africa or South Asia or Central Asia but they easily could.

For these reasons, for all the amity and good will engendered at Camp David, for all the good intentions of the Obama administration which is dedicated to fulfill its commitment to reverse the errors of the Bush years, questions clearly remain about whether the Obama approach reflects applied wisdom or over-learned lessons, prudence or punting today’s problems until tomorrow.