The U.S. Involvement in the Middle East

Have you ever wondered why the USA is so involved with the middle east? It seems like every conflict in the middle east somehow has the US involved. Why would a country be so obsessed with a region across the world? Is it just pure hatred? It actually is not. They are involved for a complex web of strategic, economic, and political reasons. The middle east is the United State’s main supplier of oil, an important material used by everyone in the United States. They need to keep this, so when their suppliers are threatened, they will always try to defend their main allies. These allies include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq, and plenty more small countries that supply oil.

One of the first conflicts between the US and the Middle East was called the gulf war. At the end of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Iraq was left in serious debt. Iraq was led by the very infamous corrupt leader Saddam Hussein. His idea of paying his debt to countries was by taking them over. His first target was Kuwait. This was obviously not the right move. The U.S, being strong allies with Kuwait, decided to help defend the country by sending their own troops and telling Kuwait what to do. According to the US Department of State, Iraq threatened Kuwait because they believed they were told by the US to lower oil prices, which angered them, making them storm into Kuwait. The US supplied their troops into Kuwait and on February 28, 1991, after 7 months of battle, forced Iraqi troops back and won the conflict. This attack on Iraqi troops was called operation Desert Storm. The United States won comfortably causing 10000-50000 Iraqi military deaths while only having around 150 confirmed US personnel deaths. 1000 Kuwait civilians were killed and 600 went missing.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, after the attacks on 9/11, the US was on edge for any potential invaders and attacks. The US believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The US wanted to invade Iraq to protect its surrounding countries by getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his potential WMDs. The US used a multitude of missiles and bombs to take down major cities in Iraq. This conflict was known as the Second Gulf War. In March of 2003, the US invaded Iraq to dispose of deadly weapons. On December 14, 2003, Saddam Hussein was found in an interesting hiding spot and captured by the United states operation Red Dawn. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in November of 2006, 3 years after being captured, Saddam Hussein was sentenced in America to death by hanging.