Analyst Sarah Harrison sees this stay-the-course policy as a recipe for further disaster. “Throughout four presidential administrations, foreign policy officials have leaned heavily on these counterterrorism tools despite evidence that they’re not working—and in some cases, could be prolonging conflict or making the situation worse,” she told Rolling Stone. “In many unstable countries where the U.S. fixates on counterterrorism approaches, what the local population is really suffering from is a lack of resources.

“It’s cliché to talk about ‘root causes’ in conflict prevention and mitigation, but that’s what it comes down to. What people are in need of is strong economies, healthcare, education, infrastructure —which depends on resources. More military training and transfers of weapons aren’t going to solve those problems.”