[Alberta's Child]

If they want to be an ally of ours, then there is a larger hurdle they have to clear for that. A close ally even larger hurdles still. That is for them to decide.

If they are not going to be an ally of ours, then there is no reason for the U.S. to be there. Lay waste to the place and leave ... or leave it alone, period.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Most of those countries are basically U.S. protectorates -- including one like Jordan that only exists because of massive USAID investment."

You asked me to identify Muslim countries that are stable. When I do you dismiss it with the above statement? I doubt we are giving aid to Kuwait, UAE or Indonesia. You just created a red herring fallacy in this statement for sure.

"If they are not going to be an ally of ours, then there is no reason for the U.S. to be there."

Well, they are now obviously. I was more referring in general to countries you talked about us 'establishing'. By establishing, I assume you meant helped out which is rather a substantial amount of countries. There are degrees of us being allied with countries. Ultimately, as long as a country is actively not plotting against our demise or looking to kill our people, they may not necessarily be a close ally, but they are fine as far as our National Interests are concerned.