I see, thanks. The term -stan just means -land, I used it to deliberately have a foreign-sounding place for "other". I now know to be more politically correct.
I'm sitting in a room with people from Uzbekistan and Kazahstan, they have absolutely no problem with the use of the term!
Not saying you intended it this way, but "shitistan" implies a dismissive attitude towards the Middle East (because "sending a drone" strongly suggests Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc) by creating a category of "any of those countries ending of -stan" (implying they're all roughly equal as far as you're concerned) and via the expletive portraying them as inherently inferior, poorer, etc. This is basically the level of discourse you expect from 4chan and its wider ecosystem, not HN.
Keep in mind that "these people who are X say they have no problem when I say this about X" is a bad test. Even ignoring the fact some people are just too polite (or anxious or oblivious or ...) to explicitly tell you when you're behaving badly, that defense is basically a version of "some of my best friends are black".
This has nothing to do with political correctness. It's just about respect. Consider it this way: the reason you don't call someone who's black the n-word isn't that it's offensive but that it's just an extremely bad way to behave yourself. If you say "black" instead, that may be more "politically correct" but if your attitudes are the same, it only makes it harder to call you out but it's not much less hostile.
IOW using a different word doesn't really help if your attitude is the same. But on the off chance you're blissfully unaware of the public attitude around "the -stans" (especially post-9/11, especially in the US) maybe just don't try to be edgy by coming up with what could easily pass for slurs when talking about things you are merely disinterested in.
Seriously? This isn't 4chan.