The United States And The Middle East

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

For the United States, the Gulf region remains one of the most geo-strategically important locations in the world for diplomatic, intelligence cooperation, and business opportunities such as hydrocarbons and arms. This strategic cooperation has provided the region some stability, particularly with the rise of Iran and the Shi’a crescent and the chaotic outcome of the war in Iraq. The council members have also relied on the United State to fend off some of the domestic challenges to the existing regimes that are both internally and regionally rooted.

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

The United States has a long withstanding legacy of the racialization of ethnic communities as part of the non-white “Other”. As seen through the downward mobility of Arab, Muslim, and Middle-Eastern Americans- who had originally been granted access to the privileges of whiteness- after being identified collectively as a threat to the expansion and success of the US empire, Arab, Muslim, and Middle-Eastern Americans began to be racialized as part of the non-white “Other” even before 9/11. Media representations of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern communities outside the borders of the United States served to construct the “terrorist” identity, which resulted in the collective racialization of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Easterners as terrorists. Through the conflation of the racialization of the Arab, Muslim, and Middle-Eastern identity with the notions of terrorism and risk, the aftermath of 9/11 led to an emergence of racially motivated government policies and practices, such as anti-immigration measures and FBI raids on Muslim community centers, as well as an increase in the level of hate-based crimes against Muslim, Arab, and Middle Eastern Americans that contributed to an internalized sense of fear and insecurity for these individuals in American society. Furthermore, this sense of internal internment within the Muslim, Arab, and Middle Eastern community, coupled with the reality of discrimination and federal exclusion, demonstrates how the racialization of Arab and

In recent years in the Middle East, 4,486 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and 2,345 U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan, and 1 million U.S. soldiers wounded. In the past years, a lot has happened in the Middle East. The US gained enemies and allies. The US should leave the Middle East and let all those countries deal with their problems on their own. Decisions that the US has made has caused many other bad things to happen. The US has to step back and give the people of the Middle East a chance to deal with things that they are facing on their own. Lastly, if something bad happened in the Middle East, the Middle Eastern countries wouldn't know what to do because the US would not be there. The US should not stay in the Middle East because involvement has had a more negative effect than a positive one.

The United States and the Western Coalition has long looked at the Middle East as an asset with little risk high reward potential. They have all looked at them as high reward low risk a region that in contrast, has an abundance of natural resources in particular oil with very underwhelming population. Even if they had a product that could reach out and touch the masses the internal struggles and lack of cohesion and structure to get out of the region. Both the United States and Western coalition watched the struggles intervened when necessary and when a reward could reaped even if it was a better deal on the oil prices to actual occupation of land. The intervention, however did began to elevate and inflate the

Take a moment to conceptualize this. The United States has broken into another civil war with all 50 states claiming independence. Your Neighbors, friends, & family being killed. You don 't have a home because it as blown up. And all your worried about is how to find you and your families next meal. You beg and try everything to leave this area even daring to ride a rubber boat to have the chance of safety and a normal life. But in this scenario The Middle East is the thriving united nation that stands for the ideal of freedom. You and your family spend weeks and months trying to get to the United Arab States(UAS), but yet they reject you because there people do not want to help you from an undeniable death. None of you would deny that you

The present battle in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq, is in part because of a conflict between the different cultures rooted there. Beneath these cultural differences are theories based on the different religious belief systems in the variety of cultures. There are three major religious based out of the middle east, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Why do these religions have such a rift between them, if their principles are similar? All three of the religions have similar qualities, and many differences, but is that still a reason to compete with each other the way that they do? Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all pray to one God, recognize Jesus Christ,share the Old Testament and carry Holy books.

Therefore, America is reaching debt in the Middle East that can never be paid back. “ Total U.S. spending on national Security related to the post 9/11 was on terror has reached $3.6 trillion, and interest on funds borrowed to pay those bills could climb to $7.9 trillion “ (Bajza 2016). Consequently, this is too much money to issue in the Middle East, Oil is why the U.S. is there and it is not worth $7.9 trillion dollars. Currently, the Middle East funding is rising every year for Homeland Security. “ Homeland Security spending has increased by more than $500 billion for missions” (Bajza 2016). 500 billion does not need to be spent preventing terrorist attacks; something else needs to be done. Furthermore, The U.S. is spending an enormous amount of money on counter terrorism attacks in the Middle East. “ Homeland Security Spending for preventions and response to terrorism for Fiscal Year 2001 to 2016 was $548 billion “ (Bajza 2016). This money should be used to train the armies of the Middle East countries so they protect themselves. The United States should not be in debt for countries they are lending a hand

The crux of the institution of government from the untenable state of nature that subsisted in the days gone by was for the protection of life, liberty and property. The doctrine of individual unilateral discretion which provided a fertile ground for the domination of the strong over the weak in society diminished in significance. So sacrosanct was the need to protect the rights and freedoms of all people that all and sundry gave up their rights, powers, and privileges of the civil society for its care. The developed world took lead in this province and in the modern world, the United States of America is considered the land of the free people in the world as a result. In pursuance of this goal, US’s policy, both domestically and internationally has been to protect not only its citizens, but also to perfect recalcitrant nations bent on civil rights infractions. On the domestic front, the rule is that should any of its citizen’s life or limb be threatened or violated by a foreigner; then the Ker-Frisbie Rule is invoked to bring the perpetrators to book. On the international plane, it has pursued a no-holds-barred approach to police the world as the Big Brother hence the tagline, ‘Uncle Sam is watching.’

“When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the United States became the world's sole superpower”(Weiner). It is vital for The United states to act its part as the world superpower and continue to help govern and protect developing and recovering countries. As the world's only superpower we are given the opportunity to either stand by and watch as millions of people die from acts of terror and corruption, or use our immense political, economical, and military power to help save, and better the world and the lives of potentially billions of people. It is important America acts as a whole now more than ever, these following years of action or inaction of the US in the middle east can and will affect not only the US but countries around the world.

The Atlantic has recently published an article written by Jeffrey Goldberg titled “The Obama Doctrine”. In this article Obama is clear that he has taken a stance of retrenchment when dealing with the constant problems in the Middle East. In the article Obama outlined two tactics that he has been actively using, throughout his presidency, to shift American resources and focus away from the Middle East. In this paper I will address how two policies have successfully pulled America away from the Middle East and how a key assumption by Obama will ultimately save the United States years of worry.

The cover page of this TIME magazine, an issue of 1979 invoked purely the orientalist idea of the Middle East. It represented the faulty equation of Islam= Muslim= Arab= terrorist or religious fanatics.