Here Comes America

As we've already seen, the period following World War II was a turbulent time for people of the Middle East. These decades saw the rise and fall of Arab Nationalism, not to mention all the tensions between Israel and Palestine.

And to complicate things even further, the period following World War II also some major foreign powers get involved in the Middle East for the very first time: the United States and the Soviet Union.

With the Cold War in full swing, these superpowers used the Middle East as an arena for ideological conflict. The US wanted the region to be capitalist; the Soviet Union wanted the region to be communist. This added yet another layer of conflict to this turbulent part of the world.

The United States' involvement in the Middle East was partly driven by the Truman Doctrine: a political promise to "support [...] democracies against authoritarian threats."

This doctrine was established by President Truman in 1947. It was an explicit stand against the Soviet Union. In the eyes of the US, the rise of communism was exactly the kind of 'authoritarian threat' that Americans needed to stop.

Imagine a small, politically unstable country. The ruling government is democratic – but they're facing the challenge of a communist party who want to take control. The Soviets send financial and military support to that communist party. They share an ideology, so the Soviets want the communist party to succeed.

According to the Truman Doctrine, America now has a responsibility to support the democratic regime.

In 1957, the Truman Doctrine was bolstered by another statement of intent, this time from President Eisenhower. And, where the Truman Doctrine had applied to countries all around the world, the Eisenhower Doctrine explicitly referred to countries in the Middle East.

More specifically, it promised military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communism. This policy was a clear signal of America's commitment to the security and stability of the Middle East.

At least, that's how America presented it. Many Arabs saw the Eisenhower Doctrine as a transparent plan to meddle in the Middle East. America wanted these countries to stay 'westernized', as opposed to embracing local movements like Arab Nationalism. America were also interested in the region's oil.

In 1958, just a year after the Eisenhower Doctrine, the United States deployed US Marines in Lebanon. This was a significant move, as it was America’s first ever combat operation in the Middle East.

Since 1952, the leader of Lebanon had been the democratically elected Camille Chamoun. He was explicitly pro-West, and a Christian too – exactly the kind of leader that America wanted.

However, when Chamoun refused to support President Nasser during the Suez Crisis of 1956, many Arabs in Lebanon came to view him as an enemy of the Arab Nationalist cause.

Then in 1958, under the leadership of Nasser, Syria and Egypt merged to form the United Arab Republic. Many Arabs in Lebanon started to call for their country to join this Arab union too.

The tension between Lebanon's pro-West government, and pro-Arab protestors, was exactly the kind of situation that the Eisenhower Doctrine had been written for.

The protestors included a group that called themselves the Lebanese Communist Party. While the Soviet Union weren't explicit supporters, they didn't need to be: in the Cold War context, any conflict between a pro-Western group and a communist group was seen as a clash between American ideals and Soviet ones.

In July 1958, America sent almost 15,000 men to Lebanon. They managed to suppress the local unrest by overseeing the election of a new, 'compromise' president.

This president – Fouad Abdallah Chehab – wasn't as pro-West as Camille Chamoun, but he wasn't particularly pro-communist either. He helped to soothe the differences between both sides, which was generally seen as a (minor) victory for America.

Another example of American intervention during the Cold War period was the North Yemen civil war. This conflict unfolded in 1962, after a local king was overthrown by revolutionary Yemeni republicans.

America swept in to support the followers of the dethroned king, while the Soviets sent support to the revolutionary republicans. This conflict lasted for just over eight years, and officially ended with a victory for the Soviet-backed revolutionaries.

This kind of conflict – where two smaller parties are backed by one or more larger parties – is known as a proxy war. They were a distinctive feature of the Cold War period: the United States and the Soviet Union didn't want to face off in a head-to-head battle, so they fought each other using proxy wars instead.

Other examples of proxy wars that these superpowers got involved in include the Al-Wadiah War, between South Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and the Lebanese Civil War.

The Cold War officially ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved. However, the United States continued to play a role in the Middle East.

In 1990, Iraq had invaded Kuwait. At the time, Iraq was led by a figure named Saddam Hussein: a devoted follower of Ba'athism, which was essentially a more modern, militarist form of Arab Nationalism.

After Kuwait, Iraq set their sights on Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia had a long-standing relationship with the United States. Why? It was mutually beneficial: Saudi Arabia provided the USA with a reliable source of oil, in return for military support on occasions like this one.

In 1991, America sent troops to Saudi Arabia. A sixth month conflict broke out, which later became known as the Gulf War.

The Gulf War officially ended with an American victory in January 1991. But America was still worried about Saddam Hussein, so they decided to leave 5000 troops in Saudi Arabia.

This didn't go down well. Al-Qaeda, who were based in nearby Afghanistan, saw this presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia as a direct insult to Islam. Some of them even thought that America were conspiring to destroy Islam entirely.

Their leader, Osama bin Laden, demanded that America withdraw. When this didn't happen, he launched the September 11 attacks in 2001, killing almost 3000 American civilians. This terrorist attack sent shockwaves all around the globe.

September 11 left the United States feeling frightened, angry and wounded. Despite decades of involvement in Middle Eastern affairs, this was the very first time that a conflict had reached out and had an impact on American soil.

And into this context came an intelligence report from Iraq. Supposedly, President Saddam Hussein had been developing weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that might be used against America.

The Bush Administration, led by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, took the decision to invade Iraq. They argued that the removal of Hussein, and the disarming of those weapons, was the only way to guarantee global security.

The US-led invasion of Iraq began on March 20, 2003. The invasion was launched with a series of airstrikes aimed at key military and government targets in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.

The invasion, known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, involved a coalition of several countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland. These countries provided military support and resources, contributing to a swift defeat of the Iraqi military.

Baghdad fell in just three weeks. US President George W Bush delivered a famous speech in front of a sign stating 'Mission Accomplished'. But in reality, this war was far from over.

Saddam Hussein managed to evade the Americans for a good few months after the fall of Baghdad. But he was captured by a team of US forces in December 2003, after they discovered him hiding in an underground shelter near his hometown of Tikrit.

The US-led coalition decided to continue their presence in Iraq, and help to stabilize the country. They established the Coalition Provisional Authority, which in turn oversaw the establishment of the Iraqi Interim Government.

However, this new government was greeted by a period of widespread violence, as a number of Iraqi insurgency groups made efforts to overthrow these unwanted Western occupiers. These groups included former supporters of Saddam Hussein, Sunni militants, and foreign terrorists like al-Qaeda.

Alongside the insurgent attacks against America, the power vacuum left by the removal of Saddam Hussein also led to an outbreak of sectarian violence in Iraq.

The violence was primarily between Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities, with both sides carrying out attacks against each other. The tensions between these two communities had been long suppressed under Hussein's regime, but now they had a chance to boil over.

The sectarian violence led to thousands of deaths, and totally destabilized the region. It also hindered efforts to establish a stable, inclusive government, and further complicated the country's recovery from American invasion and occupation.

In 2006, after three years in prison, Saddam Hussein was tried and executed by the Iraqi government for crimes against humanity. His trial and execution were hugely controversial, and highlighted the divisions within Iraq and the wider region.

And at the end of all this: no weapons of mass destruction were actually found. In other words, America's entire reason for invading Iraq had been totally flawed since the start.

This discovery left America reeling. Either their intelligence system had made a massive mistake – or the government had decided to make the evidence up. Either way, it put the United States in a very negative light.

In 2008, President Bush agreed to a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. This decision was influenced by a variety of factors, including public pressure, not to mention the sheer financial cost of maintaining such a significant military presence.

The withdrawal was completed in December 2011, under President Barack Obama. This brought an end to nearly nine years of US presence in Iraq.

It's hard to quantify the impact of America in Iraq. But some estimates suggest that more than a million people died as a result of their invasion.

Iraq today is still dealing with the aftermath of US occupation. They have made some progress in recent years, including the holding of regular elections, and the slow rebuilding of their infrastructure.

However, they have new problems too. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) emerged in Iraq during the period of US occupation. The group, originally an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has the stated aim of an Islamic state: an extreme example of Pan-Islamism.

The group's brutal tactics and extremist ideology has attracted international concern. And many have asked the question: if America had never invaded Iraq, would ISIS have ever existed?

Despite the events of the Iraq invasion, America are still involved in the Middle East. For example, they maintain a close relationship with Saudi Arabia, who are still an important provider of oil.

The relationship between the US and Israel is also important to mention. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the US has been an important ally and supporter of the Jewish state. In recent years, the Obama administration decided to give Israel a $38 billion military aid package.

As of 2024, there are also thousands of US troops still stationed in parts of the Middle East. Foreign involvement in this part of the world won't be ending any time soon.