Middle East

Contents:

• Introduction
• General
• Gulf War I (Persian Gulf War)
• Gulf War II (War with Iraq)
• Iran
• Islam
• Israel/Palestine Dispute
• Oil
• Somalia
• Terrorism
• U.S. Entangled

Introduction:

Violating their pledge to the Arabs for independence in return for their revolt against the Ottoman Turks, Great Britain and France became overlords of the Arab world in the wake of World War I. The European allies parceled out much of the land to themselves creating artificial states with artificial borders; ignoring ethnic, tribal, and sectarian lines; and anointing particular clans as royal families to rule over others. This left immense bitterness against the Western powers. Uprisings, such as occurred in the newly created Iraq in the 1920s, were ruthlessly suppressed. Formal independence eventually occurred, but always with the British and French maintaining their influence. This interference was further complicated by Britain’s support for a “Jewish homeland” in Palestine, where Arabs (and Jews without political aspirations) had lived harmoniously together for many generations. After World War II, Britain tried to continue its administration of Palestine, but increasing violence from the Zionist movement and Palestinians prompted the British to throw the matter to the United Nations, which devised a plan to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews. Before the partition was to take effect, the Zionist leaders proclaimed the independence of the state of Israel--which was promptly recognized by the U.S. administration of President Harry Truman. By then the United States, the sole power to emerge from World War II intact, had succeeded Great Britain as the dominant outsider in the Middle East.

The obvious reason for the U.S. government’s efforts to maintain influence in the region is oil. Policymakers, lacking an understanding of free trade and international markets, have labored under the fallacy that access to Middle East oil requires a heavy U.S. presence in the region. To that end, U.S. presidents have striven to place or keep loyal, client regimes in power. The starkest example came in 1953 when the CIA engineered the toppling of an elected government in Iran and restored the repressive Shah to power. (This set the stage for a radical Islamic reaction that figures in many current difficulties.) The most popular method of cultivating friends has been the funneling of American taxpayer money and military equipment to regional agents, who often brutally repressed internal opponents of their autocratic regimes. This is best illustrated by the U.S. government’s helping Saddam Hussein rise to power in Iraq and then assisting him in his 1980 war against Iran. That assistance included providing the means of developing and using chemical and biological weapons. When Hussein struck too independent a course and invaded Kuwait in 1990, the U.S. government declared him an outlaw, stationed military forces around the Persian Gulf, and twice went to war with his regime--first to drive it out of Kuwait and then to destroy Hussein’s rule altogether. U.S. officials now administer Iraq with the intention of setting up a government, ostensibly democratic in form, that will be loyal to U.S. government interests.

The other motive for U.S. intervention in the Middle East has been support of Israel, which grows out of both domestic political and foreign-policy considerations. Support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land has helped change the United States from an object of admiration to an object of hostility in the region, provoking terrorist acts that have killed and injured thousands of innocent Israelis and Palestinians in the process.

The upshot is that U.S. involvement in the Mideast has for decades involved America in bitter conflicts and created enemies out of people who would otherwise have no interest in harming Americans. For example, support for Israel and the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia have led to increased terrorism against U.S. targets at home and abroad. This in turn has produced an endless string of crises, continuing to the present, that have been used to justify further interventions and concomitant infringements both in the Mideast and domestically on Americans’ liberty, safety, privacy and property rights.

Also, click here for Bibliography for Crisis and Leviathan.

General:

Eland, Ivan. “Bush Foreign Policy Makes Clinton Look Good,” Daily Mail (Hagerstown, MD), August 2, 2002.

—. “A Not-So-Global War on Terrorism?” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, September 24, 2001.

Gress, David R. “The Drama of Western Identity,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 463-466.

Higgs, Robert. “The Cold War Economy: Opportunity Costs, Ideology, and the Politics of Crisis,” Explorations in Economic History, July 1994.

—. “Collateral Damage: Two Venues, One Logic,” San Francisco Examiner, April 15, 2002.

—. “Global Cop Role Carries Risk,” Harrisburg Patriot-News, March 9, 1999.

—. “Some Are Weeping, Some Are Not.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 26, 2003.

—. “Some Other Costs of War,” The Free Market, March 1991.

Lenczowski, George. The Middle East in World Affairs. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press; 1957. Comprehensive book on Middle-East problems since World War I.

Meyer, Karl E. The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland. New York: Public Affairs, 2003.

Nuseibeh, H. K. The Ideas of Arab Nationalism. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1957. Good analysis of Arab nationalism historically and sociologically.

Vargas Llosa, Alvaro. “Surgical Ordnance.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 10, 2003.

Gulf War I (Persian Gulf War):

Dobbs, Michael. “U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup: Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds,” Washington Post (December 30, 2002), p. A01.

MacArthur, John R. “Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War: How Government Can Mold Public Opinion,” Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, October 7, 1993 [Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]

—. Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1993.

Menon, S. M. “Iraq--‘Terror Bombing’, Starvation and Mechanical Force: U.S. Prescription for Good Governance,” Economic and Political Weekly of Mumbai, India (January 2-9, 1999).

Summers, Jr., Harry. On Strategy II: A Critical Analysis of the Gulf War. New York: Dell Publishing, 1992.

Swofford, Anthony. Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. New York: Scribner, 2003.

Watson, Bruce W., Bruce George, Peter Tsouras and B.L. Cyr. Military Lessons of the Gulf. New York: Greenhill Press, 1993.

Gulf War II (War with Iraq):

Arnove, Anthony. Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War. Boston: South End Press, 2002.

Bock, Alan W. “Criticizing U.S. Foreign Policy.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 5, 2003.

Eland, Ivan. “Attack Somalia If We Must, But Not Iraq,” Charlotte Post, December 20, 2001.

—. “Bush Deception on Iraq War II: Is the Public to Blame?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, June 23, 2003.

—. “Bush’s Early Blunders in the War Are Downplayed by the American Media.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 1, 2003.

—. “Containing and Deterring Saddam: If the U.S. Invades Iraq, the CIA Fears that Saddam Would Be More Likely to Carry Out Chemical and Biological Attacks,” St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, October 13, 2002.

—. “A Dangerous Military Adventure Indeed.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, February 20, 2003.

—. “A 51st Star for Old Glory?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 9, 2003.

—. “How Gulf War II Differs from Gulf War I.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 25, 2003.

—. “Is the U.S.’s ‘Rosy Scenario’ in Iraq Holding?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 31, 2003.

—. “National Security Policy Turned on Its Head,” Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.), November 6, 2002.

—. “Top 10 Reasons Not to ‘Do’ Iraq,” Miami Herald, August 15, 2002.

—. “Wanted: New Player for the ‘Axis of Evil’ Team.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 20, 2003.

Eland, Ivan, and Bernard Gourley. “Why the United States Should Not Attack Iraq,” Policy Analysis No. 464. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, December 17, 2002.

Gregory, Anthony. “Unbelievable Reasons for War.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, February 28, 2003.

Henderson, David R. “A Case for Not Invading Iraq.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, January 28, 2003.

Hersh, Seymour M. “Selective Intelligence,” The New Yorker, May 12, 2003.

Higgs, Robert. “Camelot and the Bushies: Some Disturbing Parallels.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 7, 2003.

—. “Facing the Consequences of the U.S. War in Iraq.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, May 2, 2003.

—. “Iraq and the United States: Who’s Menacing Whom?.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, August 5, 2002.

—. “Military Precision versus Moral Precision.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 23, 2003.

—. “Not Exactly an Eye for an Eye,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 23, 2003.

—. “Saddam Hussein Can’t Blackmail Us with a Fissionable Softball.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, October 10, 2002.

—. “Why the Rush to War?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, January 23, 2003.

Marshall, Jonathan V. “Iraq: Foreign Policy Malpractice,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 20, 2002.

—. “The Lies We Are Told About Iraq,” Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2003.

Pitt, William Rivers. War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know. Context Books, 2002.

Rai, Milan. War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War on Iraq. New York: Verso Books, 2002.

Iran:

Eland, Ivan. “Look to Iran for the Real Costs of the War in Iraq.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, May 9, 2003.

Halliday, Fred. Iran, Dictatorship and Development. New York: Viking Press, 1979.

Kinzer, Stephen. All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

Sick, Gary. All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran. New York: Viking Press, 1986.

Islam:

Ahmad, Imad-ad-Dean. Islam and the West: A Dialog. Alexandria, VA: United Association for Studies and Research, 1998.

—. “Islamic Views on Property Rights, Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurship: Application to Iraq.” Bethesda, MD: Minaret of Freedom Institute, May 8, 2003.

Aldrich, Richard J. “America Used Islamists to Arm the Bosnian Muslims: The Srebrenica Report Reveals the Pentagon’s Role in a Dirty War,” The Guardian, April 22, 2002.

Armstrong, Karen. Islam: A Short History. New York: Modern Library, 2002.

Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Kuran, Timur. “The Cultural Undertow of Muslim Economic Rage,” NationalReview.com, December 12, 2001.

—. “The Vulnerability of the Arab State: Reflections on the Ayubi Thesis,” The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 111-123.

Rashid, Ahmed. Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

—. “Osama bin Laden: How the U.S. Helped Midwife a Terrorist,” Institute for Public Integrity, September 13, 2001.

—. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Stephens, Joe and David B. Ottaway. “From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad,” Washington Post, March 23, 2002.

Israel/Palestine Dispute:

Baroud, Ramzy, ed. Searching Jenin. Seattle: Cune Press, 2003.

Chomsky, Noam. Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Boston: South End Press, 1999.

Cowen, Tyler. “The Socialist Roots of Modern Anti-Semitism,” The Freeman, January 1997.

Eland, Ivan. “Bush’s Renewed Push for Middle East Peace: A Siren’s Song.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, May 30, 2003.

—. “Lessons from Israel: Bush Must War,” Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA), May 10, 2002.

Ennes, Jr., James M. Assault on the Liberty: The True Story of the Israeli Attack on an American Intelligence Ship. New York: Random House, 1979. Testimony of the 1967 Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, written by a member of the crew.

Finkelstein, Norman G. Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. New York: Verso Books, 2001.

—. The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A Personal Account of the Intifada Years. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Flapan, Simha. The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities. New York: Pantheon, 1987.

—. Zionism and the Palestinians. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1979.

Friedman, Saul S. No Haven for the Oppressed: United States Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1938-1945. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1973. The disgraceful refusal to accept Jewish immigration to the U.S. during World War II.

Fromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1989.

Halbrook, Stephen P. “The Alienation of a Homeland: How Palestine Became Israel,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Fall 1981), pp. 357-374.

—. “Left Hegelianism, Arab Nationalism, and Labor Zionism,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2.

Hirst, David. The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East. New York: Faber and Faber, 1984.

Lilienthal, Alfred M. What Price Israel? Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1953. The impact of the creation of Israel in Palestine.

—. The Zionist Connection. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979. Comprehensive book on the politics and impact of Zionism.

Morris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

—. 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Pappé, Ilan. Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-51. London: Macmillan, 1988.

Rabinovich, Itamar. The Road Not Taken: Early Arab-Israeli Negotiations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Rogan, Eugene L. and Avi Shlaim, eds. The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Rothbard, Murray N. “War Guilt in the Middle East,” Left & Right, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Spring-Autumn 1967).

Shlaim, Avi. Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

—. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. New York: Norton, 2000.

Wilson, Evan M. Decision on Palestine: How the U.S. Came to Recognize Israel. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press, 1979.

Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-1941. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1973. The shameful refusal to accept Jewish immigration to the U.S. during World War II.

Oil:

Berstein, Barton J., ed., Towards a New Past: Dissenting Essays in American History. New York: Vintage Books, 1969.

Bradley, Jr., Robert L. Oil, Gas, and Government: The U.S. Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995.

—. The Mirage of Oil Protection. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988.

Fromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1989.

Glasner, David. “Review of the book Oil, Gas, and Government: The U.S. Experience by Robert L. Bradley Jr.,” The Independent Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer 1997), pp. 135-139.

McElroy, Wendy. “No Oil for Food.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 29, 2003.

O’Connor, Harvey. The Empire of Oil. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1956.

Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. New York: Touchstone Books, 1993.

Somalia:

MacCallum, Spencer Heath. “A Peaceful Ferment in Somalia,” The Freeman, June 1998.

Terrorism:

Bock, Alan W. “Critiquing U.S. Foreign Policy.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 5, 2003.

Bergen, Peter L. Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden. New York: Free Press, 2001.

Bovard, James. Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Carr, Caleb. The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians. New York: Random House, 2003.

Eland, Ivan. “The American Taxpayer Is Paying Dearly to Be Attacked by Terrorists.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, May 13, 2003.

—. “Don’t Give Bin Laden Total Victory,” New Journal & Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 19, 2001.

—. “Insufficient Response to Terrorism.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.

—. “President in Denial on Solution to Catastrophic Terrorism.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.

—. “Review of the book Inside Terrorism by Bruce Hoffman,” The Independent Review, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (Summer 2003).

—. “The Terrorist Retaliation U.S. Risks in Attacking Saddam,” Sacramento Bee, February 1998.

Herold, Marc W. “A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting,” March 2002.

Hoffman, Bruce. Inside Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Hoge, Jr., James, and Gideon Ross, ed. How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War. New York: Public Affairs, 2001.

Husain, Khurram. “Neocons: The Men Behind the Curtain,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Vol. 59, No. 6 (November/December 2003), pp. 62–71.

Kuran, Timur. “The Vulnerability of the Arab State: Reflections on the Ayubi Thesis,” The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 111-123.

Mizell, Jr., Louis. Target U.S.A.: The Inside Story of the New Terrorist War. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Thompson, Leroy. Ragged War: The Story of Unconventional and Counter-Revolutionary Warfare. Arms & Armour, 1994.

Toft, Monica Duffy. Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests and Indivisibility of Territory. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Vlahos, Michael. “Terror’s Mask: Insurgency Within Islam,” paper presented to Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. Entangled:

Carpenter, Ted Galen. America Entangled: The Persian Gulf Crisis and Its Consequences. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1991.

Chomsky, Noam. Middle East Illusions Including Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Justice and Nationhood. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

Eland, Ivan. “Adjusting to Iraq--and Reality.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, June 12, 1998.

—. “Bush Plan Is Just ‘Do Something,’” Newsday, June 10, 2002.

—. “The Clinton Administration’s Tough Rhetoric.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.

—. “Is Withdrawal of U.S. Forces from Saudi Arabia Enough?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 30, 2003.

—. “A Military Strike Against Iraq: Merely Saving Face.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.

—. “Saudis Offer Easy Way Out, So Let’s Take It: We Should Withdraw Our Forces Gracefully,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 27, 2002.

—. “Some Are Weeping, Some Are Not.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, April 26, 2003.

—. “The Staying Power of Petty Tyrants.” Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute.

—. “War on Terrorism Gets Too Excessive,” Charlotte Post, January 31, 2002.

Johnson, Chalmers. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. Owl Books, 2001.

Lewis, Bernard. What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Raico, Ralph. “Review of the book Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776 by Walter A. McDougall, The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 2 (Fall 1998), pp. 273-278.

Richman, Sheldon. “‘Ancient History’: U.S. Conduct in the Middle East Since World War II and the Folly of Intervention,” Policy Analysis No. 159. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, August 16, 1991.

Schwarz, Benjamin and Christopher Layne. “A New Grand Strategy,” The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 289, No. 1 (January 2002), pp. 36-42.

Weaver, Mary Anne. “Blowback,” The Atlantic Monthly, May 1996.