There's been alot of speculation lately regarding Syria and the exact nature of U.S. interest in the area. With their years-long conflict still raging, it's been said that America has imperialistic motives and would claim the troubled land as it's own if it could, but I find that pretty hard to believe. First of all, I doubt the U.S. wants Syrian territory because there isn't much of interest there. They have some oil. They have some minerals. They have some of alot of things but not enough of any one particular commodity to justify exploitation on the scale necessary to require military action.
Where I feel the government's motives actually lie is strategic positioning to combat Iran and Russia, should they continue pushing the idea of an Iranian nuclear power. The whole area is a tangled web of politics, religion, and weapons with India and Pakistan in a nuclear standoff for decades while Russia and China fight a proxy war with the U.S. by arming various groups to fight each other.
The invasion of Iraq put our entire army right next door to Iran and as we all know now, WMD had nothing to do with it. It's almost as if the middle east is one giant chess game being waged by the U.S., Russia, India and China (all nuclear superpowers) with the local Arab and Israeli populations being the pawns. Unfortunately for the U.S., our excuses to have our military in Iraq and Afghanistan are quickly drying up so there needs to be another "crisis" we need to police in the area to keep our boots on the ground, instead of on ships too far away to react should we need them.
This is, of course, why Russia wants the Ukraine so badly now. It's also right next door to the middle east and gets their army even closer to the prize, ready to strike at a moment's notice, and in modern warfare, even an hour advantage is enough to win the race to the battlefield. Both Russia and the U.S. are playing the same game and only time will tell who ends up controlling the oil in the cradle of civilization. One sure bet is it won't be the people who live there.
PLEASE UPVOTE!!!!!!