Iran-Cantra was a tempest in a teapot. It involved less than 100 million dollars of misappropriated funds send to support those fighting against the Communist supported regime in Nicaragua. All the while the press and the Dems had their political panties in a wad over that, Charlie Wilson and the Dems were covertly sending about $400 billion of US funds via CIA operatives to finance the war of the Afgan freedom fighters against the former USSR invaders, teaching them how to fight guerilla warfare and make IMDs and such. Have you read "Charlie Wilson's War"? Read the book and a lot of what is going on in the Afghanastan, Pakistan, and Iraq may seem a bit clearer to you, or not.
You left out the part where Sadam/Iraq invaded Kuwait and was about to take over more than half the world's crude oil production by force. But perhaps that wasn't such a big a deal after all. Ever wonder why North Africa was so important to the Germans in WWII? There is a Pulitzer Prize-Winning non-fiction book called "The Prize". It's about oil and global economies, and such. You might want to read that if you haven't.
Shortly after Muhammad passed away sometime in the first century AD, there was a schism in the Muslim faith over his true successor. The Shiites and the Sunnis haven't gotten along since as best I can tell. And there are other factions as well. Might want to read "The Sword of the Prophet" and brush up on some of that history, too. In that background after WWI, and again after WWII, principally the Brits in the Middle East, but all of the European powers and the Russians carved up the Middle East and Africa along lines that suited them geographically and politically, but that had nothing to do with the political and ethnic situation on the ground in the countries that got carved up. Lets just say that the tensions in the area have been "strained" ever since. How many times have the boarders of that part of the world been re-drawn in even our lifetime?
And, BTW, you left out the fall of the Shah of Iran, and the Ayatollah Kommemi's and rise of Muslim fundamentalism in Iraq, and the shooting war that was raging between the two for years back in the 70's and 80's, and the chemical weapons that were used, and the Afghan opium trade, and the Talliban and Israel and Syria and Lebanon, and Hezbolah and the Moussad and the Palestinians and Turks and the Kurds, and the Crets, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslavian republics, and Somalia, and anti Soviet separatists, and Georgia and a lot of other "stuff" that has been going on complicating the political landscape of that region for longer than the USA has been a country that has affected what has and will happen in that troubled part of the world. True, all very complicated, all in many ways fundamentally rooted in differing ethnicities and religions, principally Muslim Sunni vs. Muslim Shiite vs. Christians and territorial disputes going back hundreds of years. True, all underscored by the emerging world demand for oil and energy, principally by China and India. True, very difficult for most Americans to understand and fathom.
But there are web sites and plenty of books in the bookstores out there, Criminalizing Bush, and with much more coherent and easy to grasp explanations, which make it much simpler to understand. Michael Moore made the movie, but I didn't see it. Basically, I believe, it goes something like this: Bush wasn't legally elected, but the election had to be rigged so he could win, then arrange to have the World Trade Centers bombed and drum up a story about WMD's to have an excuse to go to war in that region and redeem his dad's failure and control the worlds oil. So it's all ultimately Bush's fault and the other stuff is just coincidental.
Sorry if that sounds condescending. I suspect it probably does. But that's about the best I can briefly summarize the two positions that seem to be "out there". I am sure you will fill me in on what other major forces are at work here that I have I missed. Thanks.