Most Americans know something about America’s involvement in the Middle East. Most Americans know vaguely, or have at least heard about, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Iraq War, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Older Americans will remember the first Persian Gulf War, the Iran hostage crisis, the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shah of Iran, and the USSR in Afghanistan. The thing is, though, even for the people who are aware of these events, I don’t think too many really realize how inter-connected they are.
And so, in this post, I’m going to try to put all the jigsaw pieces together. Like I said in the previous post, part of the modern American worldview has been shaped by the foreign policy of the United States since WWII, particularly in the Middle East. Remember, I am simply skimming the surface, in order to provide a general big picture. There are many specifics that can fill out that picture, but it is important to at least have that big picture in focus.
The Immediate Aftermath of WWII
One of the first things to realize regarding the United States’ involvement in the Middle East (and around the world, for that matter) is that much of it was because of the larger “Cold War” with the USSR. The USSR was encouraging Communist revolutions in countries across the globe, and the United States was determined to stop Communism from spreading and the USSR from gaining more worldwide power. To use an analogy, the USSR and the United States, being the two world superpowers, were like two chess opponents; and the host of smaller countries, both in the Far East and the Middle East, were like the chess pieces that each superpower tried to influence and move in their “Cold War Chess Tournament.”
And to be clear, the two most powerful Communist regimes—the USSR and China—have been responsible for the most killings in all of human history. Therefore, we need to realize that the United States’ involvement in Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East was spurned by the legitimate desire to keep the most murderous regime in world history in check. Despite the many mistakes the United States made, if it had not acted in these countries, the influence of the USSR would have extended throughout the world, and we would be living in a vastly different, and probably much more horrific world than we do today.
With that in mind, let’s commence our overview. For the first 25 years of the existence of the State of Israel, although the United States supported Israel, it wasn’t as nearly involved as it is today. It wasn’t until 1973, after the Yom Kippur War, that the United States took an active role in trying to negotiate a peace plan between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries. The United States was, though, active in many of the other Arab countries:
- In 1949, the CIA backed a military coup that deposed the elected government in Syria; it wanted to insure a more “pro-Western” regime was in power.
- In 1953, the CIA helped overthrow the democratically-elected government in Iran, and helped install the Shah of Iran, who was a very “pro-Western” ally of the United States for the next 25 years.
- In 1963, the US supported a coup by Iraq’s Ba’ath party (that was later headed by Saddam Hussein).
And so, within a 15-year span, the US had helped install rulers in Syria, Iran, and Iraq who were more allied with the US than with the USSR.
Now Here Is Some Stuff That Will Make Your Head Spin
We now come to the late 70s, where everything seemed to start to happen at once. The easiest way to present this is through simple bullet-points:
- 1978-1979: Anwar Sedat of Egypt and Menachim Begin of Israel agree on a peace treaty. Two years later, Sedat is assassinated by Muslim extremists.
- November 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis happens. Iranian students storm the
US embassy and hold 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The Shah of Iran flees the county, soon dies of cancer, and the radical cleric, the Ayatollah Khomeini, returns to Iran and forms Iran into an Islamic State. Ever since then, Iran has been the #1 State sponsor of terrorism around the world. - December 1979: The USSR invades Afghanistan, and ends up occupying the country for a decade. During that time, the US engages in covert operations in Afghanistan, arming the Afghan rebels—the Mujahedeen—in their fight against the USSR. One of the Mujahedeen fighters was a Saudi named Osama bin-Laden.
- Throughout the 80’s: The US not only armed the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan
(to fight against the USSR), but also encouraged and assisted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraqi War (to fight against the Ayatollah Khomeini). Ironically, both the US and the USSR sided with Hussein against Khomeini. Also during this time, Israel was in continued conflict with the PLO, although the PLO had been exiled, and the Palestinians remained, citizenless, in the West Bank and Gaza. - 1987: The First Intifada occurs: The Palestinians confronted Israeli forces with bottles and rocks in the occupied territories; Islamic extremist groups like Hamas and The Islamic Jihad essentially take charge of the territories and encourage terrorist acts, including suicide bombing.
- 1989: The USSR withdraws from Afghanistan, leaving the country in shambles. With the USSR threat gone, the US decides not to assist Afghanistan in rebuilding its country and establishing a stable government. Instead, the US turns its attention to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. For the next five years, Afghanistan is in a state of civil war.
- 1990-1991: As soon as the Iran-Iraq War ended, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait; in response, the United States leads an international coalition to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. Hussein is allowed to stay in power in Iraq, yet severe sanctions are leveled against Iraq. Saudi Arabia allows the United States to have a base in Saudi Arabia. Muslim extremists view the US base in Saudi Arabia as a sacrilege. One in particular, a Saudi who had returned from fighting with the Mujahedeen against the USSR in Afghanistan, is repulsed by the Saudi government and their relationship with the US. That man was Osama bin-Laden. He begins to form Al-Qaeda.
- December 1992: Al-Qaeda bombs the Yemen Hotel.
- February 1993: The first World Trade Center bombing.
- 1993: Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PLO, sign the Oslo Agreement, and agree to further negotiations to establish a two-state solution.
- 1994: Yasser Arafat allowed to return to the Palestinian territories to set up a Palestinian government; Jordan and Israel also sign a peace treaty.
- 1995: Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by a right-wing Israeli in Tel Aviv.
- August 1998: Al-Qaeda bombs US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania. It is around this time that Al-Qaeda sets up training bases in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban.
- July 2000: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak negotiates with Yasser Arafat at Camp David. Barak offers Arafat almost everything he wants, yet Arafat rejects the peace plan, goes back to the Palestinian territories, and continues to stoke the fires of Jihad against Israel.
- September 2000: Former Israeli general-turned politician, Ariel Sharon, tries to visit the Temple Mount, and that sparks the second Intifada. The Palestinians now were armed—for over five years, during the time Arafat received worldwide funding to help build up the infrastructure in the Palestinian territories, he smuggled weapons in and encouraged jihad against Israel.
- October 2000: Al-Qaeda bombs the USS Cole in Yemen.
- September 11, 2001: Al-Qaeda bombs the World Trade Center.
- October 2001: The US invades Afghanistan
- March 2003: The US invades Iraq
- For the rest of the decade: Fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq continues. The US has the military advantage, but the new governments both in Afghanistan and Iraq are weak and unstable. Al-Qaeda continues to engage in terrorist bombing across the world.
Here Comes the “Arab Spring”
Between 2010-2012, a number of Arab countries rose up oust dictators who had ruled for decades. The Obama administration praised the “Arab Spring” as the democratization of the Middle East.
- Tunisia (2011): The Tunisian president, who had ruled for two decades, flees to Saudi Arabia. Elections are held, and the Islamic party Ennedhada comes to power.
- Egypt (2011-2012): President Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled since the assignation of Anwar Sedat in 1981, and who was an American ally, resigned. The Muslim Brotherhood wins Egyptian elections, and Mohamed Morsi becomes the new president. Almost immediately, the Muslim Brotherhood gives the new president sweeping powers, re-writes their constitution, and invites global terrorists to meet with the new government.
- Yemen (2011): The president of Yemen, who had ruled for three decades, flees in the midst of protests. Ever since, Yemen had devolved into a lawless country, ravaged by constant fighting.
- Libya (2011): The people revolt against Moammar Gadhafi, and a provisional government is set up, although terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda are still a threat. The next year, an Al-Qaeda affiliated group attacks the US embassy in Benghazi.
- Syria (2011): Protests begin against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and continue to this day.
- Egypt (2013): The Egyptian military stages a coup against Morsi and bans the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt.
- The Rise of ISIS: After US forces pulled out of Iraq in 2011, remnants of Al-
Qaeda in Iraq were able to re-organize. Soon after that, ISIS spread throughout a significant portion of Iraq and into Syria, and declared a Caliphate. Ever since the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, Muslim extremists had longed for the re-establishment of an Islamic Empire—a Caliphate. - Throughout all this time: The situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has never ceased to really improve. Jihad is taught in Palestinian schools; Israel builds, then tears down, then rebuilds Israeli settlements on lands that the Palestinians claim is theirs.
So What Can We Conclude?
If one thing is for certain, it is this: there are no simple answers.
If America gets involved, violence breaks out; if America withdraws, even more violence breaks out. What was worse for the people of Iran, the Shah or the Ayatollah Khomeini? Would Saddam Hussein have allowed groups like ISIS to gain power? Who’s better? Who’s worse? If the US had stayed in Afghanistan to help it rebuild after the USSR pulled out in 1989, would the Taliban ever had gained power? Would Al-Qaeda ever been able to survive?
And we can go back further: if the Arab countries had taken in the Palestinian refugees after they had fled their homes on the advice of those Arab countries, would there ever had been an Israeli-Palestinian Conflict? If you were a Jew who had immigrated to Israel after WWII, only to find that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who had been an ally of Adolf Hitler, was instrumental in organizing the surrounding Arab countries to attack your new country and wipe it off the map—if you had somehow won that war, would you want to allow those Palestinians who were loyal to the Grand Mufti to return back to their homes? And how would you feel if his nephew formed the PLO and engaged in terrorist attacks for 30 years against your country?
Now, I am not someone who thinks Israel can do no wrong, but I do find that blanket condemnations of Israel by the more Progressive/Left in America is naïve and over-simplistic. At the same time, I find the view in many in Evangelical circles, that Israel can do no wrong, and that “The Jews are God’s people, and we are living in the End Times” is equally over-simplistic and naïve (not to mention biblically wrong).
But at this point, one thing should be clear: The United States involvement in the Middle East is complicated and messy. And since there are no easy answers, we should be wary of anyone who offers up blanket condemnations and over-simplistic analyses.
This Ways of the Worldviews post really has just been a historical overview. In my next post, I’ll attempt to offer some thoughts and opinions on how this has affected America’s outlook and worldview.
