The Effects of the Cold War on the Middle East - Research Paper Example

?The effects of the cold war on the Middle East The cold war was the result of corroding relationships between the United s and the Soviet Unionafter the end of the Second World War. The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not need the Soviet support any more to win over Japan after testing the atomic bomb, ensuing the 50 years long Cold War. Thus, Yalta Conference in Crimea, Soviet Union, in February 1945 between the “Big Three” allies of the Second World War was one such event that structured the start of the Cold War (The Cold War, “Disney 1,” par. 1). Middle East throughout the Cold War had become a ground for rivalry. Egypt found itself cornered as it was unable to get ammunition and economic support from the USSR; it could not support Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War and in the War of Attrition against Israel. Although Egypt underwent a political changeover from Soviet Union to the United States in 1972 under the leadership of Anwar El Sadat yet the 1973 Yom Kippur War brought about huge congregation of American forces putting at stake detente because of the propaganda of Soviet involvement in backing Egypt in the Yom Kippur War. Soviet influence in the Middle East could be seen not only in the pre-Sadat Egypt getting Soviet help but other countries such as South Yemen, Algeria, and Iraq as well as indirect support to the Palestinian cause by backing Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (Cold War, “Wikipedia,” par. 6). The Six Day War or June War held in 1967 was one such major event known by different names such as the 1967 Arab- Israeli War or the Third Arab-Israeli War was waged between Israel and the neighboring countries Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Israel won the war comfortably capturing Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The area captured by Israel during the Six Day War followed up with the refugee problem, which has become a concurrent issue of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This has created issues in global law affecting international relations in the long term (Six Day War, “Wikipedia,” par. 1). Earlier, after the 1956 Suez Crisis, Egypt had to give consent to the positioning of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Sinai for abiding with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. It entered into bilateral defense agreement with Syria. Jordan blamed Egypt for not supporting it militarily under the garb of UNEF. When the Soviet Union made false reports of gathering of Israeli forces on the Syrian, borders, Egypt ousted the UNEF forces from Gaza and Sinai; its force taking up UNEF positions at Sharm el-Sheikh opposite the Straits of Tiran. Along with others, Egypt also sent its forces to Jordan to support against Israeli aggression resulting from the closure of the Straits for Israeli shipping. The deteriorating political climate finally provoked Israel in waging war by the name of Operation Focus at the firs day of the Six Day War with a sudden air attack. On can not deny the role of the Soviet Union played by sending false announcements of Israeli troops positioning at the Syrian borders. In one way or the other the then super power, the USSR, played the provocative role of adding petrol in the enflamed political environment, furthering it to the Six Day War (Six Day War, “Wikipedia,” par. 2). Afghanistan became the battleground of Cold War when the Soviet troops landed on its soil in December 1979 in support of the Afghanistan’s Marxist government led by its ex-Prime-minister, Nur Muhammad Taraki. The US has been providing support to the Mujahidin insurgency against the Soviet supported Marxist government even before the arrival of Russian forces there. This fact was revealed in an interview by the French weekly newsmagazine Le Nouvel Observateur by the American President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. The Cold War between the then Super Powers was an extension of their desire to become world leader by waging a proxy war into which the US dragged the Soviet Union to give it a taste of what it underwent in Vietnam. The secret American support to the Mujahidin was a trap for the Russians so that America could back out from SALT II treaty from the Senate (War in Afghanistan, “Answers.com,” par. 1-4). One can see the success of the American policy of compelling the USSR to cut its defense budget and later pursuing the line of capitalist economic reforms in the 1990s. Afghanistan has not been able to erase the after-effects and is still facing the repercussions in the form of social and economic tensions, aggrieved refugee situation, waging of an internal war by the Mujahedin through extremist activities, and Afghanistan paying the cost of independence, not capable of effectively running the country (Effects of the Cold War, “Answers.com,” par. 5). Learning lessons from the effects of Cold War in the Middle East, countries like Egypt have the resources to restructure militarily like Israel and UAE. Other hostile states like Afghanistan don’t have easy and chap access to Russian technology and ammunition after the disintegration of the Soviet Union (Cordesman 5-6). Iran has learnt well from the latest experience with the US, the UK, and Israel, comprehending its position and vulnerability in the wake of Afghanistan and Iraq type US aggression. Iran has distanced itself from direct waging of “tanker war” with the US and Britain in 1987-88 (Cordesman 8). They have recognized the US and Western vulnerabilities in advance before the Second Cold War in Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Islamic extremist organizations like al-Qaeda and others have learned to effectively dissolve into “franchises”; they are fighting with old tactics by leveraging from the shortcomings in the US strategies (Cordesman 9). The US weaknesses in political, ideological , and psychological warfare have become apparent; it has failed in strategically over limiting for furthering its so called stability operations (Cordesman 14). Iran has learned from its conflicts with Iraq. It knows it can not brave the US attack through conventional warfare as proved in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has learnt from the analysis made by Russian, Chinese, and Western analysts. It has pursued a military policy of focusing more on buying asymmetric warfare systems by taking clues from the latest wars (Cordesman, “The Iranian Case Study,” par. 1-3). As stated above post Cold War, the military vulnerabilities of the US have come to the fore even before the Cold War came to an end. They were discussed in the Middle East quite before the Afghanistan issue emerged. It got proved in the Lockerbie case substantiating the fact that that countries and extremist organizations can easily get away from the counter-attacks by committing terrorist operations in the guise of proxies, not leaving a mark of their carrying out aggression and thus, saving themselves from major counter military revenge. Another latest case point towards this fact is the Al Khobar, not proving to what extent Iran involved resulting in no revenge was followed on. On the same line, it could not be substantiated that Iraq was behind the attack on the World Trade Center. As per the conspiracy theories, false flag activities are practical where more than one terrorist group has taken the responsibility or unfamiliar terrorist groups have claimed responsibility although nothing could be proved (Cordesman, “Post-Cold War Military Vulnerabilities”, par. 11). Implications of the Cold War 9/11 is the result of not clash of civilizations but the outcome of the latest history of the Late Cold War. The period of Cold War actually starts at the end of the American War in Vietnam to the downfall of Soviet Union in the 1990s, ensuing a period of proxy war till the latest war in Iraq. The proxy war represented two distinct features that of America pursuing a foreign policy of Reagan times. One finds similar traits in the policies of Reagan and Bush, throwing light on their “War on Terror” framework after 9/11. The Reagan administration saw the Islamic revolution in Iran and elsewhere other revolutions as starting a new trend of anti-American governments after Vietnam. This was acknowledged by America that it was getting ready for a war against the Soviet Union on the European battleground which was not going to be happen; militant nationalists were presented by the Reagan administration as if they were Soviet proxies. Thus, a changeover in American approach and planning for low-level conflicts emerged (M. Mamdani 12). America shifted in its approach from “Containment” to “rollback” through all means of waging proxy wars against “evil empires”, starting immorally useful talk with the apartheid rule in South Africa. Political terror was employed to underscore the nationalist governments in Africa, shifting the proxy war battlegrounds to rest of the world including Middle East in the late seventies. It brought a change in its political terror approach by befriending al-Qaeda later and Taliban in Afghanistan. Actually, they were American allies in the cold war. America wanted to win “by all means necessary”, matching by a phrase “by hook or crook”.9/11 needs to be taken as an aftermath of sour relations because of incomplete American aims of the Cold War (M. Mamdani 13). America’s bombing of Afghanistan has put a question mark on handling of terrorism. Unlike crime, political terrorism has a purpose of gaining support of the masses. The fear of punishment cannot easily thwart their mission. What is needed is patient listening to the issues raised by them. Segregating political terrorists through aggression won’t solve the issues such as Taliban in Afghanistan and revolutionary forces in Iran, and Egypt’s involvement with the rest of the Islamic world against Israel and America when there is no support from the erstwhile Soviet Union with its dissolution (M. Mamdani 229). America’s bombing of Afghanistan is not a right tactic to bring political solution to the issues; it reminds one of the medieval-age blood revenge. The after-effects of Cold War are getting mirrored in such tragedies as the 9/11. One can see the common link between the wars against terror and its perpetrators of 9/11 not following any middle path to reach to an end. Both forces are tying to find justice through revenge. Terrorists do not differentiate between the official America and the people there and America also adopts a callous attitude towards the problems of the people of Afghanistan or for that matter of Iraq while continuing endless aggression through direct or proxy wars. American attitude is to cash on the opportunity provided by 9/11 to give a message to the whole world that it is the supreme power (M. Mamdani 230). The post-Afghanistan debate everywhere in global parlance has raised a question of a persistent relation between war against terror and war on Iraq. It puts a question mark on the legacy of Cold War, necessitating the need to set rule of law and global acceptance. America found an excuse to follow the Reagan policy in the wake of 9/11 to end the incomplete mission of Cold War. The American punishment of terror is a new war against the “axis of evil”. It has thrown light on the link between its attack of Afghanistan and that of Iraq. It is America’s post Cold War edition of the so-called “democratic revolution” of the evil forces (M. Mamdani 231). Afghanistan had paid hugely for the defeat of the Soviet Union. It suffered loss of life as huge as 1 million, about one and a half million got wounded; 5 million of its people became refugees. Afghanistan was the last battleground of Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. 9/11 happened because America did not put a full stop to the Cold War with demilitarization and rewarding peace. The Cold War ended because one of its supporters, the Soviet Union got disintegrated while the other, i.e. the United States has become a globally most powerful country due to waging of Cold War (M. Mamdani 255). Works Cited “Cold War.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 5 February 2011. 5 February 2011 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_war#cite_ref-176>. Cordesman, Anthony H. Lessons of Post-Cold War Conflict: Middle Eastern Lessons and Perspectives. 27 May 2004. 5 February 2011 < http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cia/nic2020/cordesman_lessons.pdf>. Mamdani, Mahmood. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. Amazon.com. 2005. 5 February 2011 < http://www.amazon.com/Good-Muslim-Bad-America-Terror/dp/0375422854/ref=cm_cr_pr_orig_subj#reader_0375422854>. “Six Day War.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. March 2009. 5 February 2011 . “Soviet War in Afghanistan.” Answers.com. 2011. 5 February 2011 . “The Cold War,” Disney 1. 28 February 2003. 5 February 2011 < http://disney.go.com/educational/abcclassroom/support/tcw/TG_TheColdWarUnit.pdf>. Read More