The Middle East has always had extraordinary geostrategic importance. (74) Because it contained or bordered on the land bridges, passageways, and narrows – the Sinai Isthmus, the Caucasus, the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, Bab el Mandeb, the Strait of Hormuz – and the sheltered seas – the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian/Arabian Gulf – that provided the best routes connecting the different extremities of the vast Eurasian/African continent. In addition, the location of this region is full of rich river valleys and productive and was an important source of cotton as well as textile industries into the twentieth century.
For more specifically. The Middle East was historically vital to inter- …show more content…
To suggest that the United States should have then, and must now, reduce its involvement in the Middle East is to call into question both the importance of the region to the United States and the Importance of the United States to the region. It is to challenge conventional wisdom that now only has the force of inertia, it also has a constituency invested in portraying the Middle East as important in itself, rather than important because of the resources, chiefly oil, it supplies to the rest of the world…The expanding U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, the rising American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorist acts against U.S. targets, the continuing violence in the Holy Land, and the speculations about new U.S. military campaigns against Iran and Syria are all demonstrating the costs of American policies in the Middle East. Americans observe that the costs are increasing each day. But they fail to see that the policy is proving tangible benefits to their security and welfare. (Hadar, 2005, p. …show more content…
While this commitment reflected a certain element of idealism in U.S. foreign policy, as opposed to basic geo-strategic and geo-economic interests, and responded as well to domestic political pressure, it eventually became an integral part of the U.S. Cold War-era policy in the Middle East, that is, of its MEP. One important outcome of that policy has the pro-American Arab oil-producing states, while simultaneously trying to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict. (Hadar, 2005, pp.
For more specifically. The Middle East was historically vital to inter- …show more content…
To suggest that the United States should have then, and must now, reduce its involvement in the Middle East is to call into question both the importance of the region to the United States and the Importance of the United States to the region. It is to challenge conventional wisdom that now only has the force of inertia, it also has a constituency invested in portraying the Middle East as important in itself, rather than important because of the resources, chiefly oil, it supplies to the rest of the world…The expanding U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, the rising American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrorist acts against U.S. targets, the continuing violence in the Holy Land, and the speculations about new U.S. military campaigns against Iran and Syria are all demonstrating the costs of American policies in the Middle East. Americans observe that the costs are increasing each day. But they fail to see that the policy is proving tangible benefits to their security and welfare. (Hadar, 2005, p. …show more content…
While this commitment reflected a certain element of idealism in U.S. foreign policy, as opposed to basic geo-strategic and geo-economic interests, and responded as well to domestic political pressure, it eventually became an integral part of the U.S. Cold War-era policy in the Middle East, that is, of its MEP. One important outcome of that policy has the pro-American Arab oil-producing states, while simultaneously trying to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict. (Hadar, 2005, pp.