Are you confused by what is going on in the Middle East? Let me explain.

We support the Iraqi government in the fight against Islamic state (I.S.). We don’t like I.S., but I.S. is supported by Saudia Arabia, whom we do like.

We don’t like President Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but not I.S., which is also fighting against him.

We don’t like Iran, but Iran supports the Iraqi government against I.S. So, some of our friends support our enemies, some of our enemies are our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies — whom we want to lose — but we don’t want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.

If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less.

And all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren’t actually there until we went in to drive them out.

Do you understand now?