a relevant chronology of events in the Middle East

The United States and Middle East: Why Do "They" Hate Us?  

  (revised, 22 Sept. 2001)

  By Stephen R. Shalom

  The list below presents some specific incidents of U.S. policy in 
the Middle East. The list minimizes the grievances against the 
United States in the region because it excludes more generalized 
long-standing policies, such as U.S. backing for authoritarian 
regimes (arming Saudi Arabia, training the secret police in Iran 
under the Shah, providing arms and aid to Turkey as it ruthlessly 
attacked Kurdish villages,etc.). The list also excludes many 
actions of Israel in which the United States is indirectly implicated 
because of its military, diplomatic, and economic backing for Israel.

  Whether any of these grievances actually motivated those who 
organized the horrific and utterly unjustified attacks of September 
11 is unknown. But the grievances surely helped to create the 
environment which breeds anti-American terrorism.

  1948: Israel established. U.S. declines to press Israel to allow
  expelled Palestinians to return.

   1949: CIA backs military coup deposing elected government of 
Syria.

   1953: CIA helps overthrow the democratically-elected Mossadeq
   government in Iran (which had nationalized the British oil ompany)
   leading to a quarter-century of repressive and dictatorial rule by  
the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.

   1956: U.S. cuts off promised funding for Aswan Dam in Egypt 
after Egypt receives Eastern bloc arms.

   1956: Israel, Britain, and France invade Egypt. U.S. does not 
support invasion, but the involvement of its NATO allies severely 
diminishes Washington's reputation in the region.

  1958: U.S. troops land in Lebanon to preserve "stability". 

  early 1960s: U.S. unsuccessfully attempts assassination of Iraqi 
leader, Abdul Karim Qassim.

  1963: U.S. reported to gives Iraqi Ba'ath party (soon to be headed 
by Saddam Hussein) names of communists to murder, which they 
do with vigor.

   1967-: U.S. blocks any effort in the Security Council to enforce 
SC Resolution 242, calling for Israeli withdrawal from territories
   occupied in the 1967 war.

  1970: Civil war between Jordan and PLO. Israel and U.S. prepare 
to intervene on side of Jordan if Syria backs PLO.

  1972: U.S. blocks Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat's efforts to reach 
a peace agreement with Israel.

   1973: Airlifted U.S. military aid enables Israel to turn the tide in
   war with Syria and Egypt.

  1973-75: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq. When Iran reaches 
an agreement with Iraq in 1975 and seals the border, Iraq 
slaughters Kurds and U.S. denies them refuge. Kissinger secretly 
explains that "covert action should not be confused with missionary 
work."

   1975: U.S. vetoes Security Council resolution condemning Israeli
   attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

   1978-79: Iranians begin demonstrations against the Shah. U.S. 
tells Shah it supports him "without reservation" and urges him to act
forcefully. Until the last minute, U.S. tries to organize military coup
to save the Shah, but to no avail.

  1979-88: U.S. begins covert aid to Mujahideen in Afghanistan six 
months before Soviet invasion in Dec. 1979. Over the next decade 
U.S. provides training and more than $3 billion in arms and aid.

  1980-88: Iran-Iraq war. When Iraq invades Iran, the U.S. opposes 
any Security Council action to condemn the invasion. U.S. soon 
removes Iraq from its list of nations supporting terrorism and allows 
U.S. arms to be transferred to Iraq. At the same time, U.S. lets 
Israel provide arms to Iran and in 1985 U.S. provides arms directly 
(though secretly) to Iran.
  U.S. provides intelligence information to Iraq. Iraq uses chemical
  weapons in 1984; U.S. restores diplomatic relations with Iraq. 
1987 U.S.sends its navy into the Persian Gulf, taking Iraq's side; an
  overly-aggressive U.S. ship shoots down an Iranian civilian airliner,
  killing 290.

  1981, 1986: U.S. holds military maneuvers off the coast of Libya in
  waters claimed by Libya with the clear purpose of provoking 
Qaddafi. In 1981, a Libyan plane fires a missile and two Libyan 
planes shot down. In 1986, Libya fires missiles that land far from 
any target and U.S.attacks Libyan patrol boats, killing 72, and 
shore installations. When a
  bomb goes off in a Berlin nightclub, killing two Americans, the 
U.S.charges that Qaddafi was behind it (possibly true) and 
conducts major bombing raids in Libya, killing dozens of civilians, 
including Qaddafi's adopted daughter.

  1982: U.S. gives "green light" to Israeli invasion of Lebanon, killing
  some 17 thousand civilians. U.S. chooses not to invoke its laws
  prohibiting Israeli use of U.S. weapons except in self-defense. 
U.S. vetoes several Security Council resolutions condemning the 
invasion.

  1983: U.S. troops sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational
  peacekeeping force; intervene on one side of a civil war, including
  bombardment by USS New Jersey. Withdraw after suicide 
bombing of marine barracks.

  1984: U.S.-backed rebels in Afghanistan fire on civilian airliner.

   1987-92: U.S. arms used by Israel to repress first Palestinian
   Intifada. U.S. vetoes five Security Council resolution condemning
   Israeli repression.

   1988: Saddam Hussein kills many thousands of his own Kurdish 
population and uses chemical weapons against them. The U.S. 
increases its economic ties to Iraq.

  1988: U.S. vetoes 3 Security Council resolutions condemning 
continuing Israeli occupation of and repression in Lebanon.

   1990-91: U.S. rejects any diplomatic settlement of the Iraqi 
invasion of Kuwait (for example, rebuffing any attempt to link the 
two regional occupations, of Kuwait and of Palestine). U.S. leads 
international coalition in war against Iraq. Civilian infrastructure 
targeted. To promote "stability" U.S. refuses to aid post-war 
uprisings by Shi'ites in the south and Kurds in the north, denying 
the rebels access to captured Iraqi weapons and refusing to 
prohibit Iraqi helicopter flights.

  1991-: Devastating economic sanctions are imposed on Iraq. U.S. 
and Britain block all attempts to lift them. Hundreds of thousands 
die.Though Security Council had stated that sanctions were to be 
lifted once Saddam Hussein's programs to develop weapons of 
mass destruction were ended, Washington makes it known that 
the sanctions would remain as long as Saddam remains in power. 
Sanctions in fact strengthen Saddam's position. Asked about the 
horrendous human consequences of the sanctions, Madeleine 
Albright (U.S. ambassador to the UN and later
 Secretary of State) declares that "the price is worth it."

  1993-: U.S. launches missile attack on Iraq, claiming self-defense
  against an alleged assassination attempt on former president 
Bush two months earlier.

   1998: U.S. and U.K. bomb Iraq over the issue of weapons 
inspections, even though Security Council is just then meeting to 
discuss the matter.

   1998: U.S. destroys factory producing half of Sudan's 
pharmaceutical supply, claiming retaliation for attacks on U.S. 
embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and that factory was involved in 
chemical warfare. U.S. later acknowledges lack of evidence for the 
chemical warfare charge.

  2000-: Israel uses U.S. arms in attempt to crush Palestinian 
uprising, killing hundreds of civilians.