Where The United States Went Wrong With The Middle East [Opinion]


The United States has on many occasions been accused of meddling in the affairs of other states, an aspect that has on numerous occasions led to detrimental consequences, especially for the countries involved. More specifically, it has been involved in the toppling of governments in the Middle East, an aspect that has made the region fertile ground for radical jihadist groups. The lawlessness and easy access to arms because of the conflicts has made it hard to overcome super-groups such as Isis.

The United States has specifically been accused of funding and supporting Isis before it became autonomous. The following is an excerpt of a report by Global Research highlighting this.

“Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region. The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.

The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then, America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union. The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William Odom recently remarked, ‘by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism.”

The wars that the United States has needlessly involved itself in have led to the loss of countless lives. Taking, for example, America’s invasion of Iraq, it was a bad decision from the onset, as its aftermath was a destabilized Iraq, where no government could last for long, and law and order virtually non-existent. According to a report by Forbes, the decision to invade Iraq is the biggest mistake in the U.S. military history. The following is an excerpt on this from the site.

“What policymakers and a majority of the U.S. electorate (60 percent in the latest polls) now know is that Iraq never should have been a country in the first place, so trying to make democracy work there is likely to be a thankless task. When the area was part of the Ottoman Empire prior to World War One, it was three separate provinces centered on Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, in recognition of its ethnic diversity.

It remains diverse today, and not in a way that is likely to facilitate popular rule once the forcing function of an American military presence is done.”

One of the main reasons for invading the country was because of the suspicion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, something that turned out to be completely fictional. Another surprise was that the Iraqi people had conflicts with one another as well as the United States, making the democracy ideology hard to implement. It also made peacekeeping in the country a nightmare and led to the needless loss of American lives.

The same situation was replicated in Libya, where the United States, through NATO, helped rebels usurp Muammar Gaddafi from power. The result was that after the rebels had murdered the dictator, they began fighting amongst themselves. The whole country was littered with corpses, with the general population desperately looking for ways out of the nation. Consequently, thousands have perished in the seas trying to reach the shores of Europe by drifting in overcrowded boats.

The situation has greatly affected Europe, which receives thousands of refugees every week running away from the conflicts in these countries. Syria is no exception as the United States is currently supporting opposition rebels there that are trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad, a pattern that will only eventually lead to more chaos in the Middle-East.

[Featured Image by Chris McGrath/Getty Images]

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