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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Why These Posts?

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on
September 19, 2020

“My name is Khaled. I don’t wish to alarm you, but watch your back, my friend over there wants to kill you.”

The first week of May 1986, Urumchi airport in far western China, I was waiting for a flight to Kashgar en route to the Khunjerab Pass over…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Intro. A Century of U.S Meddling in the Middle East

By
on
July 22, 2020

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  George Santayana.

“I’ve got news for Mr. Santayana:…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 1. Muhammad and The Great Sunni – Shi’a Schism

By
on
July 22, 2020

Before invading Iraq in 2003, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld didn’t know the difference between the Sunni and Shi’a branches of Islam, much less why it would matter and turn out badly once they ousted Saddam Hussein. So a brief history of Islam in order before…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 2. Sunni – Shi’a Today

By
on
July 22, 2020

First the demographics. Of the 1.6 Billion or so Muslims in the world, roughly 85%, 1.35 Billion, are Sunni, the rest, 15%, 240 million, Shi’a.

Westerners who tend to hyperfocus on Islam in the Arab world likely do not know that only 20% of all Muslims live in the…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 3. 1919 Sykes-Picot Agreement: Planting the Seeds of Conflict

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on
July 22, 2020

Even before World War 1 was over, two colonial administrators, Mark Sykes for Great Britain and François Georges-Picot for France, aristocrats both, carved up the defunct Ottoman Empire into colonial spheres of influence based on lines drawn quite literally in the sand, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq for Great Britain,…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 4. 1947 – 1948. Al-Nakba: Partition of Palestine and Creation of Israel

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on
July 22, 2020

Theodore Herzl

In the late 1800’s, Theodore Herzl and other Jewish leaders in Europe began pushing for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, then under Ottoman control.

After World War I, Palestine was governed under Sykes-Picot by the British, and…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 5. Syria 1949: The First, But Not Last, U.S. Coup Against Democratic Governments in Middle East

By
on
July 22, 2020

Syria was created as a French mandate after World War I as the Arab Kingdom of Syria,  but in 1946, with King Faisal as its nominal head, Syria became an independent, democratic, self-governing country. Or so Syrians were led to believe.

Shukri al-Quwatli

Shukri al-Quwatli was elected as independent…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 6. Iran. The 1953 CIA Coup Against Mosaddegh

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on
July 22, 2020

In 1953, the CIA deposed Mohammed Mosaddegh, the Prime Minister of Iran, and replaced him with Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the man we call “the Shah,” whose autocratic rule led to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and 40 years of enmity between Iran and America. 

How did we get…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 7. 1956 Suez Crisis

By
on
July 22, 2020

Suez Canal 1954

A chronology of U.S. policy in the Middle East would be incomplete without the Suez Crisis, the 1956 invasion of Egypt by Britain, France and Israel after Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. 

King Farouk (1950)

In 1952, Nasser and other nationalistic…


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Century of U.S. Meddling in the Middle East

Post 8. Israeli-Arab Wars of 1967 and 1973

By
on
July 22, 2020

Featured Image: For a Perfect Holiday – Visit Egypt

Following the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of the Sinai eight years later during the 1956 Suez Crisis, only a most tenuous ceasefire had existed between Israel and its Arab neighbors….

JON WALKER MACLEOD
SEATTLE, WA

We live in perilous times, democracy is under attack, rationality and compassion are in short supply, and our planet, our home for 200,000 years, is burning up. We must resist, we must work for a better world. MacLeod Post is my voice in that struggle.

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