The United States and Middle East Relations

This essay analyses the book "Quicksand America's pursuit of power in the middle east" by the author Geoffrey Wawro, in which he examines the United States role and involvement in the Middle East. In this Quicksand" book, the author does not focus narrowly on an individual nation or era but rather discusses the history of America’s involvement in the last century covering the entire region. The author examines a broad range of iconic events that have occurred in the Middle East in the last century as a result of the US being in the Middle East. Some of the events covered in the book include the birth of Israel, the death of Sadat, the Suez crisis and the energy crisis, the Sixty-Dar war, the Iraq and Afghanistan war, the Iran-contra and the rise of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda extremist group. In the book, Wawro draws the parallels that exist between the America’s past mistakes and the dilemma’s it's facing today in the Middle East. By the end of the essay, the author will provide an extensive analysis of the "Quicksand" book by Wawro in which it will involve discussing how the US has got involved in the Middle East and also demonstrate the relationship between America and the Middle East.

According to the author of the book, the US has been in the Middle East for over hundred years, but its involvement in the region has been all in vain. Wawro claims that over time different US administrations have operated in the Middle East following doctrines that did not conform to the reality in the region. Since the time of President Woodrow Wilson, the US foreign policy has significantly affected everyone in the world. The book plays out between two states that are Saudi Arabia and Israel. The US supported Israel at all costs because of internal reasons, whereas the US supported Saudi Arabia because of the inexhaustible oil reserves in the country. "The birth of Israel as well as the discovery of vast pools of oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s led to increased focus of American attention on the Middle East region as never before and wove the region into America's domestic politics. The strategy used by America in the Middle East has been muddled and confused over the years since it has not been addressed strategically, but rather politically." The explanation for the US’s blind support to Israel first appears to be astonishing and almost as a cliché. "Every president since Wilson has succumbed to the bluster of the Israel Lobby." Wawro writes that "From LBJ on, every president tolerated illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, which Rabin called "redeeming Israel's narrow hips." The author provides adequate evidence and arguments that demonstrate that this is precisely the case of what happened. It is evident that from one US administration to another, they all succumbed to the pressure that was exerted by the government of Israel and its supporters in the US.

The author also shows the US support for the Zionism and its initial purpose in which it intended to establish a "Jewish National Home" in the homeland of other people, the Palestinians. The author states that President Woodrow Wilson was not comfortable with the concept of a Jewish state and its reservations towards its establishment. The reason that Wawro gives was that "Fourteen Points could not be squared with European Zionists' plans to take over Arab land in Palestine, and ´assimilationist` Jews in the US – as it happened in Britain and Europe – feared and resented the idea of a Jewish state anyway because it reinforced the cliché of the ´wandering Jew` by implying that Jews were stateless." However various quarters lobbied President Wilson including the Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and other leading Zionists, who claimed that the Jewish state would be an essential ally to the US. The author extensively describes this Lobby that came to be referred to as the "Israel Lobby" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The influence led to the massive Jewish immigration into the United States. Since this immigration at the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, all the subsequent US administrations have supported the Zionist cause and after 1948 the Israel state. Wawro writes that "The Jewish population of the U.S. increased from 250,000 to 4.8 million between 1882 and 1945. With 90 percent of this rapidly growing Jewish population concentrated in nine tightly contested states, both FDR and Truman- and also all future US Presidents-supported a Jewish state in the Middle East despite Arab protests". Also, "In the presidential election of 1948, Thomas Dewey had a stout pro-Israel plank in his platform; Truman believed he could do no less. Truman pledged "full recognition and development aid" to a Jewish state despite having relatively small numbers-625,000 Jews in Palestine compared to 1.3 million Arabs-and tolerated Israel's brutal expulsion of 75 percent of Palestine's Arab inhabitants in 1948, creating approximately 844,000 Palestinian refugees, a number that has risen to about 4.7 million today." The move by the United States to choose in favor of the Jews also influenced other world leaders who were opposed to them. For instance, Kind Lbn Saud had for an extended period persistently opposed the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. The House of Saud had since the 1930s denounced the Zionists as "land grabbers," "marauders" and the American citizens "had never won the Saudis over the Washington’s supportive position." However, Kind Saud’s position changed since he had shown restraint toward President Churchill and President Roosevelt; thus had to let go of the bitterness at the American ambassador.

According to Wawro, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have been managed before the World War II; however, after the war, it was "utterly unmanageable." The author thinks that the permanent influence that the pro-Israeli pressure groups exerted upon the different US administrations could have played a vital role in averting the war. President Truman had his "White House backroom boys," whereas John F. Kennedy had a "White House desk officer for Israel."

The "Quicksand" book also shows that almost all the US governments got driven by the ideology of "Oilism" in all its actions. All the Bush governments were filled with persons from Big Oil who include Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. The two US administrations differ considerably in the way in which they approach the State of Israel. The US Secretary of State, Baker, was said critical of the state of Israel. Baker dealt with the Israel government in a tough way. For instance, in 1991 Baker dragged the Israel government, then led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to the peace conference held in Madrid. The recent US governments have been submissive to the state of Israel, as evident by the respective conduct of the former US Vice-president Joseph Biden and his Israeli hosts. When Biden visited Israel, he said "Good to be at home," while attempting to appeal to the Israel’s good will. Biden was however met by an announcement by the government of Israel in which they demanded the further increase of the illegal colonization of the East Jerusalem with 1, 600 housing units, yet it was a policy that contradicted with the US declared wishes. Also, in another incident, the former President of the US Barrack Obama was brought in line after he demanded a total halt of the Israel settlement policy. Under the younger Bush administration, the approach to Iraq after the Golf war was more level-headed and the president opposed the opposition when it came to what Bush regarded as vital US American interests.

The book also reviews about the rise of terrorist groups in the Middle East, especially in Iraq. The Book shows how different governments approached the Al Qaeda issue. With the Iranian Revolution in the 1979, Iraq saw its opportunity and the internal combustions reverberated in the form of Jihad. The author writes that "most of the "foreign fighters" in Iraq were not jihadis before the invasion; the war itself radicalized them. The CIA had warned of this before the war" Osama Bin Laden viewed the US's failure to topple the Saddam administration in 1991 as evidence of American decadence; hence, triggering his move to Sudan in which he trained and built the Al Qaeda and also started planning for jihad against America. President Clinton, on the other hand, was for the Taliban of law and order. Before, the September 11 attack on the US, the administration did not prepare or see any threat of the Al Qaeda to the nation. "During the transition from Clinton to Bush 43, Clinton and his advisers warned President Bush and Condoleezza Rice that al-Qaeda group was the threat to America's interests. However, they were mostly ignored. Bush laughed off a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefing in 2001 that warned of an impending attack inside the US, stating: "all right, you've covered your ass now."

In a summary of the book, Wawro demonstrates how Israel has become a liability for the foreign policy of US in the Middle East rather than been an asset. The book also shows how the US influence and involvement in the region have adversely impacted the Middle East such as leading to increased hatred of the US in the region. The author adequately writes about the US involvement in the Middle East by referring to history events in the region.

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