In hindsight it is easy to say it was pointless, because the USSR imploded. However, at the time with the USSR looking strong and expanding influence rapidly internationally, that was not at all clear.
And I imagine you don't think it would have been best to allow the USSR to gain a strategic advantage over the West.
It's very common to say later, that decision I made was a mistake, but if I was in that same situation with the knowledge I had at the time, I'd still make the mistake.
I like to hope they are actually doing something in the shadows to stop the spread of such extreme ideologies but there's a part of me that thinks the Western world has no problem with it occurring. Just another war and another enemy to fight down the track.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_propagation_of_S...
You can't walk around Cambodia without seeing a bunch of legless people who stepped on landmines. Huge swathes of land is unusable because the country has the most unexploded ordinance on Earth from a war that never existed on the books and certainly not in the minds of the public.
The sheer arrogance of enforcing your morals and telling people what is best for themselves with the barrel of a gun. None of this stuff is about democracy or western values, it's all about money and power.