Let them kill each other. Good for American oil stocks. Presumably, in the 70s and 80s, the US needed their oil, so just enough peace to get the oil out and shipped safely was a necessity?

Oil is a commodity and the price is set on the global market. Although the US is currently an oil exporter, a disruption in global oil supplies would cause the domestic price to spike. The US economy is dependent on oil. We need the price to be low, hence the meddling in the Middle East.

As we all know, the US has a security agreement with Saudi Arabia. As a mental exercise, try to guess which US president created that arrangement. Nixon? Carter? Nope. It was FDR back in 1945 when the US was the biggest oil producer in the world. Even back then it was clear we needed the oil to flow on a global scale.

In hindsight, I'd say our meddling in the Middle East has mostly backfired. A lot of effort and not many success stories. We need to rethink our energy policy that requires us to get involved in conflicts we don't understand. We seem to be headed that direction a little bit. Time will tell.