The US and the Middle East

Terrorism and the US

• 2 basic schools of Terrorism1) Terrorism can be deterred by striking back at

its perpetrators and cowering them into submission

2) The only way to stop terrorists are to cure the conditions that cause it.

• If you give in to terrorism, there will be more terrorist attacks.

Terrorism and the US Con’t

• 1983: truck bombs kills over 214 US marines in Beirut barracks. US was there on NATO peacekeeping mission

• 1989 – Airplane explosian in Lockerbie, Scotland (Libya)• 1993: bomb explodes in the New York World Trade

Center killing 6. Plan was to have one tower fall into another. No retaliation

• 1998: Within 9 minutes of each other US embassy’s in Kenya and Tanzania are hit by truck bombs

Terrorism and the US Con’t

• US retaliate by cruise missile strikes at Afghanistan (camps) and Algeria (factory)

• Middle East response is to love bin Laden more

• 2000: Aden, Yemen; USS Cole is struck by two suicide bombers. 17 crew men dead

• September 11, 2001: 3000 people dead

Soviet - Afghanistan War

• 1979: Communist take over Afghanistan during the Cold War

• US sees it as a chance to give Soviets their “Vietnam”• US supports the Mujahedin, Muslim soldiers from

around the ME (250,000)• US gets help from a young Saudi, Usama bin Laden• 10 year war rages with the Soviets leaving• 1996: Taliban (Muslim religious group) takes over

Afghanistan

Desert Storm

• 1991: Iraq invades Kuwait• Saudi Arabia asks for the US to help• UN coalition decides attack is aggression and

authorizes force to expel Iraq only• 100 hours war leaves the Iraqis on the run• Usama bin Laden sees US on Saudi soil as

soiling holy land

Usama bin Laden

• Mujahedin: roaming soldiers of Allah after Afghanistan war. Could not go home.

• Become the moral and military guardians of the Islam world

• Form terrorist coalition called Al-Qaida• Al-Qaida is well organize and establish 40

camps in Afghanistan to train terrorists

• Usama bin Laden decrees that there is no difference between military and civilian targets in US

• A Jihad is called: Holy war, war against personal vices, armed struggle, Crusade.

Other Terrorist Groups

• Islamic Jihad: Terrorist group out of Egypt

2001 Invasion of Afghanistan

• After the 9/11 attacks – the US invaded Afghanistan and destroyed the Taliban October 2001

• Helped by the Afghanistan Northern Alliance• Failed to capture bin Laden in a cave complex in Tora

Bora• 2010, Obama orders 30,000 more troops there• Currently fighting Taliban, and political corruption of

the Harzi government

US Invasion of Iraq (Third Persian Gulf War)

• March 2003 – US and UK invade Iraq with the goal of ending the Ba’ath Party rule and remove Saddam Hussein from power (Dec 13th)

• Iraq insurgency turns popular opinion against the war in US• 2007, Bush putting General Petraeus in charge, sends additional

troops to Iraq to restore security (Bush troop surge) it works• During the current transitional period – Iraq has been plagued by

violence from Sunni insurgents and Al-Qaeda terrorist network.• August 2010, Obama declares armed role of US in Iraq over, troop

levels fall to 50,000.

Main Causes of Middle East Conflict

1) Incomplete transition from religious communities to nation states

2) Many Middle East people believe that their governments are illegitimate

3) Quest for dignity and freedom from countries that have endured subjection and are determined never to lose independence again

4) Problems that come from outside governments that try to help but don’t

5) Growing concentration of highly destructive weapons in a region that is volatile and vulnerable