American Intervention in the Middle East

Note: This is an excerpt from The Impeachment of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for High Crimes in Syria and Libya, by Michael Ostrowski and James Ostrowski (2016).

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American intervention in the Middle East did not start in Libya and Syria in the last five years. World War I marks the beginning of American involvement in the Middle East.   The Ottoman Empire had ruled the Middle East for about 600 years.  It is difficult to find evidence the Middle East was a major problem for the United States while it was ruled by the Ottomans.

The first American intervention in the Middle East in modern times comes with American entrance into World War I in 1917 on the side of the Allied Powers including Great Britain and France, the two leading imperial powers of the previous centuries. Ironically, Woodrow Wilson pushed the United States into war to make the world “safe for democracy.”  During the war, Great Britain, France, and Russia agreed on a plan to carve up the post-war earth, Iran is perceived to be an ally of Syria and thus, taking down the Shiite-friendly Assad was seen as a way to chip away at Iran’s influence.

The movement of U. S. foreign policy to demonize and attack Shiite regimes and in the process, ally with Sunni regimes, seems counterintuitive as those Shiite regimes have sponsored or produced very few terrorist attacks against American targets over the years.  In sharp contrast, most major terrorist attacks against Americans have been perpetrated by Sunnis.

In return for her Israel First foreign policy, including illegally helping to start a war in Syria in part to help Israel, Hillary Clinton has received and will continue to receive massive material support from pro-Israel donors and PACs.

The bottom line is this.  America’s foreign intervention in the progressive era, both in Europe and the Middle East itself, has directly or indirectly caused massive problems both for the United States and the Middle East.

Notes

[1] J. Judis, “Seeds of Doubt,” newrepublic.com, Jan. 15, 2014.

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