It's rather hard to address the future. Without seeing the results, you can't really say things will be worse. But, if you want my opinion on it, I doubt they will be, mainly because we won't be using chemical weapons, and civil wars are generally less stable than other things.
Just look at Iraq and Afghanistan. Occupation just makes things worse, that's been proven time and time again by history. Extremism goes through the fucking roof because, surprise surprise, people generally don't like foreign occupiers. Doesn't matter if it's out of colonial greed or an asininely naive white knight complex, they just don't take kindly to it. That's largely why Baghdad and Kabul are a lot more explodey right now than they were before the Americans had their way with the country.
I'd say things are better than they were, actually. Terrorism is still an issue, true, but Saddam was in fact a bad person, and had more than a few screws loose. I'd say that while things certainly could have gone better, and the way things were done was horrid, things are actually looking up. Al-Qaeda is in shambles, real equality progress is being made, and there's one less psychotic dictator in the world.
Also, if I remember correctly, it was the unregulated madness of Wall Street that ruined the economy moreso than anything else. Now, the American government's debt comes from our wars, that is true.
I'm not saying they caused the recession, I'm saying additional wars and with it even more skyrocketing debt will make lead to a crash that makes the current recession seem like a minor hiccup.
Ahem, proof?
Additionally, regarding the soldiers, there it is again. The soldiers lives are more important than the civilians lives. Why? Soldiers die or civilians die. One of them signed up knowing the risks. Anyone in the American military now knew what they were getting into. It's not like people who signed up in 2000 and got thrown in. People signing up now were elementary schoolers when 9/11 happened. They know they're signing up in a dangerous time. Civilians, meanwhile, never were given another option. They were forced into this shit. If anything, risking the lives of those who agreed to save the lives of those who did not is the just thing, not letting people who never had another option die because people who didn't have to sign up weren't sent.
Just because their job is risky is not a valid excuse to get them killed in a poorly thought out invasion. And yes, because they are American, the American government has an actual responsibility to keep them as safe as possible (naturally, this applies to other nationalities just as much). Foreigners, not so much. They're the responsibility of their own government. It doesn't matter how strongly you believe in this incredibly bleeding heart and impractical mindset of yours, that's the reality of it. A government's obligation is to its citizens. As long as there is poverty, violence and other issues at home, the government has no business playing world police.
There will always be poverty, violence and other issues here. World peace is impossible with humans in control. Also, it's only poorly thought out if you don't, well, think it out. With good planning, it's not poorly thought out. Additionally, I'd say that that is in fact the racist mindset. No group of people should be more important than others due to their nationality. In the end, one group signed up for the job whose description involves shitty conditions and a high chance of bullet-related problems. The others were born in a bad place. One asked to be put in these situations, whether due to needing the military to pay for school, tradition, patriotism or sheer sociopathy, and the other did not. We spend more money on our military than is even remotely sane. To horde that power and let others die when they don't have to and never asked to be put in that situation is immoral as a fat man hoarding food and letting people starve to death.
PHH, why is the Middle East catching your attention so strongly? Subsaharan Africa has war, poverty, epidemic, famine. Southeast Asia has plenty of problems. South America. There's human trafficking going on all over the world. There's always people dying from preventable diseases, from war or starvation. Here in the U.S., we have plenty of problems, with poverty, and health-related issues. So, yes, the Middle East is particularly unstable right now. But. As long as their war stays within their own borders, it's none of our business. There are too many problems, both in America and all over the world, problems that we can actually do something about, without making even more people hate us. It's not that "oh, they're not Americans, so they don't matter." It's, why are we doing this AGAIN? Why are we intervening in another country's affairs against their wishes, AGAIN? Why are we acting like the world police, AGAIN? THAT'S why I oppose military intervention in Syria.
Well, we're discussing the Middle East. That's why it's what I discuss. Although not on here, I've expressed the thought that what we're doing elsewhere, especially Africa, is pointless and actually harms them, because the aid we send to Africa gets taken by warlords, making them more powerful. Additionally, we feel that there is too many problems in America because we're used to less problems. Most of the world would take all of our problems over their own problems. Also, the government of that nation is evil. I think oppressive dictators can be described as evil. It does not matter what the government of Syria wants, because, well, of course they want us to stay away. They're the bad guys here. The way I see it, the more fortunate have the obligation, not just the ability or the opportunity, but the obligation, to help the more downtrodden. I view it the same way as raising taxes on the rich. They should be required to give more to help others, because they have more to give. That goes for the first world in general, when compared to the third world, too. As a nation with the ability to remove the murderous dictatorship in charge and save thousands, we have an obligation to do so. We have the ability to help, and so, we must.