U.s. Involvement During 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.

United States policy towards the Iran-Iraq war was interesting to say the least. While the United States claimed to be a neutral party, they supported Iraq for the majority of the war, supported Iran for a brief period, then went back to only supporting Iraq. Both sides committed numerous atrocities and war crimes, and for the most part received little to no American condemnation. Through this essay, I will explore the reasons for the US involvement, and their responses to a number of war crimes, particularly Iraq’s use of chemical weapons throughout the war.

Since the early 1900s the United States has been embroiled in Iranian affairs, something that would have great effects both in 1979 and now. The United States’ interest in Iran was originally spurred by the discovery of oil, but due to the Cold War U.S. interest in Iran grew even more for strategic reasons. To continue to exert their influence in Iran, the United States, through the CIA, installed shah Pahlavi as ruler. The shah was a cruel and strict dictator and was eventually overthrown and exiled. In place of the shah, an Islamic Republic came to power under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini.

“One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you 'd see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans” (George H. W. Bush). President Bush stated that the Persian Gulf War was not fully supported by the soldiers who fought in the war. Gulf War veterans marched like Vietnam veterans because they also viewed the war as unjustified. Persian Gulf War veterans would say, “American soldiers lost their lives’ for oil.” The first Persian Gulf War started from August 2, 1990 and ended on February 28, 1991. This war began by the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. During this invasion some of the oil fields of Kuwait were set on fire and some of the oil spilled to the Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf was the oil supplier for western countries. So anything happened to the Persian Gulf, the western countries will naturally react. The factors that led to The United States’ involvement in the first Persian Gulf War included Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, his control over a sizable share of the world’s oil reserves and his power over the economies of the world. Many Americans believe that the first Persian Gulf War was not necessary for the United States.

History has provided us a lesson about great power involvement in the Middle East. It is that, when superpowers drift away, peace, progress, moderation and stability do not necessarily follow in their position. While the result pattern of Great power intervention is familiar, we never fail to be shocked by the

The United States and the Western Coalition has long looked at the Middle East as a asset with little risk high reward potential. They have all have looked at them as high reward low risk a region that in contrast has an abundance 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 Middle

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

The Obama administration did a good job of “bolstering” Jordan against chaos from Iraq and Syria so far, but stepping back from the region could still stir up some problems with the neighboring countries of Jordan such as Lebanon, Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt. Although it being risky for the United States, it may not always work to be involved in other countries because of cost and resources that would be used to stabilize the foreign countries rather than reconstructing them. All of these countries want and need western economic, diplomatic, technical, and military assistance, but in order to make that happen, the U.S. needs to get rid of the root of the problem, stating that no matter how many terrorists the United States kills, if these civil wars don’t stop, “more young men will turn to terrorism” (Pollack). There are urgent requests from the Yemeni government for economic reconstruction, which is in a deadly competition with Al-Quaeda (C. Chosky & J. Chosky).  Hence, the United States could do a better job in foreign nations.

The United States was heavily involved in Middle-Eastern affairs during the latter half of the twentieth century. Following the election of President Eisenhower in 1952, the U.S.’s growing fear of Iranian nationalism and the potential spread of communism throughout the Persian Gulf ultimately coaxed U.S. forces into helping the British’ MI6 oust the Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, from power. The CIA successfully overthrew Mossadegh and created a power vacuum in the Middle East, in 1953, through Operation Ajax. The U.S. then informally colonized Iran, under Shah Pahlavi’s rule, in order to possess economic and political hegemony over the volatile Persian Gulf. The U.S. effectively transformed the Shah into an autocratic ruler

The United States has had some international issues with Middle Eastern countries in the past. It goes without saying; the most recent is the current gulf war led by George W. Bush and of course the previous gulf war led by his father George H.W. Bush. With neighboring Iran, there have been quarrels such as the Iran-Contra affair. This involved a political scandal in which Ronald Reagan's administration sold military arms to Iran. At this time they were in the midst of the Iran-Iraq War, while the United States had hostages held in Lebanon by Hezbollah. The United States hoped that Iran would influence Hezbollah to release the American hostages, but didn't. Finally, with Saudi Arabia also part of the Middle East, the United States

American involvement, interests, and policies in the Middle East have changed dramatically over the past 220-plus years. And if one had to trace how exactly it has changed, the issue of oil and Israel would be at the center. United States foreign policy in the Middle East goes back to the end of the 18th century. It started on the wrong foot with the Barbary Wars right after America was established. The shape of American interests in the Middle East at that time was not so clear, mainly because political and military relations were minimal. Although there were some commercial ties with some Arab countries and Persia, basically American involvement and interests in the Middle East prior to WW I was limited. In the early 1900s, American companies

Providing security in the middle east has been a priority and also a challenge for the international community, especially within the last two decades. Through this time period the middle east as a region, despite its wealth of natural resources, has experienced severe conflict caused by corruption, religious tensions, and the disenfranchisement of local citizens just to highlight a few crucial issues. Because of these issues the Middle East has been a hotbed for instability. My article, “What Will It Take to Prevent a Security Decline in Mosul” is a briefing by two RAND Corporation security fellows Shelly Culbertson and Linda Robinson. In their briefing they discuss main challenges the international community must prioritize addressing in

Since the early days of the Roman and Greeks, there have been major changes; Europe, Germany, England and France has become a powerhouse, the United States of America has been discovered and today it is one of the most powerful and dominant countries in the world with Russia, Japan and China; major countries with valuable resources. The only place in the world that has not changed or improved is the Middle East. The Middle East for centuries has been a major problem for North African countries, Asia, as well as many European countries. From the 1900 's to the present day, the Middle East has been causing problems to the USA. The involvement of the USA with the Middle East will lead to an era of terror that will affect the US and Europe.

There is no dispute that the Middle East, for the past century, has been a region plagued with tension and conflict. Differences in religion and ethnicity have been the source for hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the progression of those issues have shown very little evidence of slowing down as the bloodshed continues. Many parties on the global scale fear that the combination of evolving technology and weaponry, and desire to harness nuclear power, is fueling the hatred that some of the countries in the area have for one another and will eventually lead to an extremely disastrous nuclear war. As a result, international global organizations, such as the United Nations, have been working to prevent such an outcome. They are