It feels deeply cynical and jaded to me to say, well, just let Iran fund armies and encourage ethnic cleansing, as long as they don't do this one specific thing that is more important to Americans. As long as the horrors you create only affect people in the middle east, we can look the other way.

I'd say the cynical position is the one that says "we can't improve everything all at once, so let's not seek incremental improvements."