Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't...

...in its Middle Eastern incarnation, masterfully explained by Victor Davis Hanson:

Remember, there is also an ironclad law about the Middle East, one we keep forgetting: Arab intellectuals (many of them educated or residing in Western universities) hate the U.S. for backing dictators; they hate the U.S. for intervening to remove them; they hate the U.S. for trying to impose postbellum democracy upon them; and they hate the U.S. for staying clear and letting Arabs be Arabs on their own.

From a discussion of whether the US can win wars any more. We can, of course, but Hanson points at groups and individuals who, like Lucy with Charlie Brown, jerk the football away at the critical moment.