As Sweden took in a lot of refugees from the middle east I actually hear a lot of their own views on the subject. As long as the rest of the world are infusing the area with money in exchange for oil the wars there will continue.
There exist a good reason why nations stopped allowing money going to blood diamonds. Inequality fuels conflict and oil money has a long and proven history of increasing inequality. Cutting off the money river would do more to stabilizing the region than any number of more military bases, bombs, drones and invasions could ever achieve. Yes, china and Russia would jump in in order to attempt seizing that oil in the absent of US interest, and in order to prevent them we would need to make it worthless for them to do so. Just like with money laundering we would have the new problem of oil laundering.
If we look at EU for inspiration, the peace inspired treaty that created it was primarily focused on steel. Steel production was expensive, required a lot of workers and energy, and involved a complex chain of inter-dependent markets. Nation measured themselves in their ability to create steel. The iron miners however did not get massively rich. Nor did the coal miners. EU managed to connect the sources for iron, coal, and nuclear energy, and in large this was the revolution in Europe for equality. The lower the friction of that market the more interconnected the involved countries became. As we now move away from a world focused on steel that union has seen increased instability. Just now in corona times people are arguing if countries of more successful management strategies will bail out those that is currently failing. We don't really feel it like we used to do if one country in EU drop in equality.
The US tactic of using bombs and invasions in order to create equality did also not work in the middle east. It might had worked in a steel focused era such as that after the second world war. Similar the EU tactic might had worked in the middle east if the oil market would behave more similar to that of steel. Right now however I doubt either will create the equality needed for peace. The most promising strategy would be to just leave them alone and make sure that the oil is never going to be worth wasting blood over.
There exist a good reason why nations stopped allowing money going to blood diamonds. Inequality fuels conflict and oil money has a long and proven history of increasing inequality. Cutting off the money river would do more to stabilizing the region than any number of more military bases, bombs, drones and invasions could ever achieve. Yes, china and Russia would jump in in order to attempt seizing that oil in the absent of US interest, and in order to prevent them we would need to make it worthless for them to do so. Just like with money laundering we would have the new problem of oil laundering.
If we look at EU for inspiration, the peace inspired treaty that created it was primarily focused on steel. Steel production was expensive, required a lot of workers and energy, and involved a complex chain of inter-dependent markets. Nation measured themselves in their ability to create steel. The iron miners however did not get massively rich. Nor did the coal miners. EU managed to connect the sources for iron, coal, and nuclear energy, and in large this was the revolution in Europe for equality. The lower the friction of that market the more interconnected the involved countries became. As we now move away from a world focused on steel that union has seen increased instability. Just now in corona times people are arguing if countries of more successful management strategies will bail out those that is currently failing. We don't really feel it like we used to do if one country in EU drop in equality.
The US tactic of using bombs and invasions in order to create equality did also not work in the middle east. It might had worked in a steel focused era such as that after the second world war. Similar the EU tactic might had worked in the middle east if the oil market would behave more similar to that of steel. Right now however I doubt either will create the equality needed for peace. The most promising strategy would be to just leave them alone and make sure that the oil is never going to be worth wasting blood over.