The Involvement Of The Middle East

Operation Iraqi freedom had a severe toll on the American government. Costing around 12 billion a month throughout the operation, these costs added up through supporting the new Iraq government by supplying aid, weapons and soldier benefits after the war, around 4,200 United states defense personnel died trying to liberate Iraq of it’s dictator/ looking for Wmd’s 2007 was the worst year for the death toll in the war having 900 troops being killed or went missing. Operation Iraqi freedom had an especially big affect on the American Soldiers involved 48% of the American soldiers that returned home from Iraq had mental health problems mainly due to seeing things the terrorists organizations had done to women/children or seeing friends killed, this took a large toll on the American budget for the war too seeing as these soldiers

The role of the Middle East has been very crucial to the United States, especially after WWII. The U.S. had three strategic goals in the Middle East and consistently followed them throughout various events that unfolded in the region. First, with the emergence of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the U.S., policymakers began to recognize the importance of the Middle East as a strategic area in containing Soviet influence. This also coincides with the U.S. becoming increasingly wary of Arab nationalism and the threat it posed to U.S. influence. Secondly, the emergence of the new Israeli state in 1948 further deepened U.S. policy and involvement in the region while also creating friction between the U.S. and Arab states which were

After World War 2, the United States took over Britain’s job of overseeing the Middle East. The United States tried to avoid conflict while preventing the spread of communism. They successfully stopped the spread of communism, but couldn’t have done much worse trying to prevent conflict and stabilize the Middle East. The United States policy destabilized the Middle East, Iraq in particular, by overthrowing the Hussein regime at a poor time and deepening the anti-Western attitude in the Middle East.

“The United States recognizes the provisional Government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.” These are the words of President Harry Truman from a speech he gave shortly after Israel became a recognized nation in 1948. Consequently, the political leaders of the United States have brought America on a rough journey to the current state of foreign policy and relationship with Israel. Since 1948, the United States’ active position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen very little change or progress towards achieving settlement between these two nationalistic states. In the last 65 years, the majority of U.S. presidents repeated mistakes made by their predecessors in office, and this in turn has had little

The superpowers, namely the USSR and US were in engaged in a war by proxy, which is very easy to identify if you analyze the conflicts in the Middle East from 1948 until, and including, the Yom Kippur War of 1978. The superpowers would employ tactics such as supplying their various ‘allies’ in the Middle East with weapons and finances which would afford them the ability to engage in the many conflicts that took place in that period such as the Suez Crisis, Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. All of this was done without either superpower’s putting their own men on the ground to fight, for fear of an all out war between each other. However much the superpowers might have fuelled the conflicts with supplying the Arabs and Israelis with weapons and finances, they were not the cause for the conflicts as they are much deeper rooted. Israel and the Arab states have always seen tension as per their culture and religious differences, and the growing nationalism of the Arab states and Zionism in Israel, which amounted to extreme actions such as the three major conflicts during the time period 1956-1978.

President Obama stated in his Anti-Terror Strategy address, "We continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today” (Obama).The Middle East today is composed of very complicated religious tensions, unstable states, and rising terrorist organizations. The collapse of central governments and the rise of powerful non-state actors breed problems that foreign powers and the world’s only superpower, simply should begin to address. Many argue that the involvement in the Middle East is not our problem and that it will only cause our national debt to increase. As human beings we must began to realize the crimes against humanity occurring in the region and ask ourselves one question, can we truly turn a blind eye to the hundreds of innocent people dying and at what cost? The United States of America must get involved in the Middle East to ensure justice is achieved and maintained. Our interference will decrease the chances of terrorist attacking U.S. soil, and our military involvement will save the lives of many innocent citizens caught up in the turmoil. The United States must protect its interests and allies in the region. America stands for freedom, justice, and dignity; we must take a stand to defend ourselves and those in need, if we truly want to uphold the

Many Americans responded to the September 11 terrorist attacks with fear, anger, as well as a growing intolerance for immigrants, especially against people who were or appeared to be from the Middle East, a trend that continues to this day. Over 6,000 service members have been killed fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq along with thousands of innocent civilians in these two countries. The United States war on terror has created anger and resentment towards the U.S which in turn has the potential to create and recruit more terrorist members. The cost to fight the war on terror has been astonishingly high. The war on terror has cost over 3 trillion dollars and can account for many of the financial crisis that has plagued the United States for many years. According to the National Intelligence Estimate report, even though al-Qaeda has been weakened since the September 11 attacks, new radical Islamic movements have taken its place and have grown stronger and been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. These movements can be seen in Iraq and Syria. The war on terror in Iraq can be contributed to the rise of ISIL due to the failure of the United States in creating a stable and non-corrupt government. While Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath Party were ruthless, he was able to keep a strong hold over his

forces at a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In June 2011, President Barack Obama announced the beginning of large-scale troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, with a final withdrawal of U.S. forces tentatively scheduled for 2014. Many people throughout the world (though not all) are in agreement that the world is a better place without Saddam Hussein. In losing Hussein, the Iraqis gained freedom of expression. Due to us fighting the war they are slowly turning into a democracy. Iraq could eventually serve as an example of democratic transition for other nations in the Middle East. However, it’s too soon to measure the benefits of the Iraq war. It remains to be seen how history will judge America’s involvement in Iraq. The war against Iraq was a war that needed to be fought. If we fought more ruthlessly it would of been over sooner. In October 2002, a National Intelligence Estimate stated that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” or WMD. On March 19, 2003, with the support of Congress and the majority of Americans, the U.S. military began bombing Baghdad in a campaign titled “Shock and Awe.” The result was 189,000: Direct war deaths, which doesn't include the hundreds of thousands more that died due to war-related hardships. 4,488: U.S. service personnel killed directly.32,223: Troops injured (not including

Following September 11, 2001, there seemed to be a sense of fear towards Arabs and Muslims in America. Since then, the tension between the United States and the Middle East has escalated. Based on the attention terrorist attacks receive, stereotypes tend to arise toward Muslims. Terrorists can be any ethnicity or religion, but typically jihadist terrorists’ gain the most attention in the media and the press. In America, Arabs, Muslims, and Jihadists tend to all get grouped together, even though they are not synonymous terms (Amble, 2012, pp. 340, 342). Not every Arab is a Muslim and not every Muslim is a terrorist. In fact, only a small portion of Muslims partake in terrorist activities and the Islam religion actually prohibits deliberate murder of unarmed individuals in battle and suicide (Pratt, 2013). If many stereotypes of Muslims seem to be incorrect, then it is crucial that Christians become educated on what Muslims actually believe. Critiques of the Islam faith that the Christian makes cannot be rooted in the actions of a few radicals. Just as certain people do evil things in the name of Christianity, without truly knowing Christ, I believe terrorists do the same. By targeting the aspects of violence in Islam I believe the Christian can close doors to witnessing. Instead, I think there are two core criticisms between the Islam religion and Christianity that can be analyzed to persuade a Muslim, law and logic. These two categories would allow us to meet with Muslims at

US support and agendas within the Middle East have been extremely complicated in the last century. Starting with the backing of the Shah of Iran in the early 1950s to the present-day conflict in Syria, there appears to be no decision without adverse secondary and tertiary effects. Since the Persian Gulf War, US policy has been fully supportive of the Arabs and Turks while limiting official support for the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Nevertheless, unofficially, the US has fully supported the Kurds militarily through the establishment of long-term partnerships between military forces. While always a point of contention with Turkey and the Government of Iraq (GOI), the recent increase in support for Kurdish forces in Syria to oppose the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) brought the issue to the forefront. The time for US policy to withhold support for the Kurds is past due to their critical role in the campaign against ISIL. The US attempted to establish a coalition amongst the Turks and the Arabs but this has largely failed to turn the tide of ISIL’s advance. However, following the consistent successes of the Kurds advance wresting control of northeastern Syria away from ISIL, it is a foregone conclusion that the US requires an alliance with the Kurds if they wish to establish some semblance of stability in the Middle East. In the end, can the US ethically and morally provide support to the Kurds, ignoring requests from US allies in the region?

The U.S. War in Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history. After the September 11 attacks in New York, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan followed, supported by a collation of all NATO members and other countries, the war’s fundamental goals were clear, with the primary objective of dismantling the Taliban government, bring Osama bin Laden to justice, and attempt to curb the growth of terrorism (CITE). Now, 16 years later, the war calls for hot debates. Many argue about the status of the war, is it too long? Is it worth the cost of lives? In short, the US did achieve the fundamental goals of the war. But if the unpredicted length of the war and the astronomical cost of the war, both in money and lives were added into the deciding factor,

The United States have been involved in many countries throughout history. Most recently the U.S. have been involved with the Middle East and terrorist groups within those countries. Throughout our involvement in other countries the U.S. has experienced blowback. The term blowback has played a significant role on our foreign policy. “Blowback is defined as the unintended consequences of policies that were kept from the American people” (Johnson, 2000, p. 8). This paper will discuss the effects of blowback in United States foreign policy and why it matters, the consequences of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and how the Bush administration contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Imperialism began in the 1870s, European states established vast empires mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and the Middle East. Imperialism can be used as an act of expanding used as an act of developing a country’s empire through the use of force, colonization, or coercion. This method can be used to benefit one or both sides of the process. By means of benefiting one side would be considered as being a world bully because the nation is trying to expand or develop with the help of others without doing the other nation any good. As a result of advancing both nations can give a nation the name of a world leader with it helping both sides, everyone is developing in a way to help not just themselves, but others as well. America used imperialism for the good or bad as long as they got something out of it in some way. Many in the U.S. thought that country must be able to compete and saw the opportunity to take its own colonies before European countries got them all. Colonial powers often struggled with each other over the best potential features. These motives tend to believe its purpose is gaining additional wealth, power, and control. America used this approach as an intimidator to get economic growth, expand their political power, spread of the culture’s religion, and build military and naval bases.

Anti-Americanism campaign in Turkey,and Morocco (“A year after Iraq War”). Also discontent with America and the policies has intensified instead of diminished (“A year after Iraq War”). The U.S. Military is not seen in a better light as a result of the war against Iraq (“A year after Iraq War”). A growing number in West Europe thinks that the U.S. is overreacting to the threat of terrorism (“A year after Iraq War”). There is a broad agreement of nearly all of the countries around the world surveyed also U.S. being an exception that the war on Iraq did more hurt than help with the war on Terrorism. For Muslim countries, anger towards the U.S. remains pervasive, but some of the hatred have eased and support for the war on terrorism has inched up (“A year after Iraq War”). America has a different outlook on the war impact,than other people in other countries (“A year after Iraq War”). Americans think that the war helped in the fight against terrorism,they think that it illustrated U.S. power in military etc (“A year after Iraq

According to the UN only 9,759 civilians have died in Afghanistan, but the Lansing medical journal reports that 654,965 civilian casualties occurred in Iraq from 2003 to 2006 so these reports should be taken with a grain of salt. On the pro-Saddam side of the war 76,778 Islamists fighters have died; these deaths were made of security forces, private contractors, Sons of Iraq, and most were made up of other supporters of the regime. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Armed Forces have suffered 4,487 deaths and 32,223 were wounded in action as of May 2012.