Chapter 5 Writing Part 2

Since United States (US ) fulfillment of its moral obligation to settle the displacement of the Jews by supporting the establishment of the Jewish homeland in 1948 , it has been involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict that it eventually assumed the role of peacemaker , as evidenced by the Carter Doctrine on the Middle East peace process in the late 1970s . However , the role of the US has not been welcomed by other Arab nations which advance the cause of their Palestinian brothers and are determined to wipe Israel off the map of the region . As

such , while keeping strong alliance with Israel had been to the US ' strategic advantage before , today the close US-Israel relations has turned to be costly to the US as its military and economic support to Israel have been widely viewed by its Arab neighbors as the only reason why they have not yet overcome Israel . Hence as the ultimate unintended outcome of its policy of support to Israel , the US has become the main target of Islamic terrorists which have made the Arab-Israeli conflict their central theme

In maintaining its strategic interests in the Middle East , the US has also provided support to undemocratic regimes such as the absolute reign of the Shah of Iran , Mohammad Reza Palavi , before it was toppled by the Iranian Revolution . Through the Central Intelligence Agency 's (CIA , the US helped the Shah to return to Iran by inciting protests to overthrow the nationalist Iranian Prime Minister which brought the Shah to exile Upon the Shah 's return to power , he dismantled constitutional limitations that enabled him to rule absolutely with the American support . His pro-Western stance , however , fomented opposition from hard-line Islamic conservatives which culminated in the Islamic revolution in 1979 , led by the anti-US religious leader , Ayatollah Khomeini . In November that year , as the Shah took sanctuary in the US the followers of Khomeini invaded the US Embassy in Iran and held everyone inside hostage , troubling President Carter 's administration and contributing to his loss to President Ronald Reagan on the next presidential elections

Since a strong and Islamist Iran was a threat to the US influence in the region , the US provided military support to Iraq under Saddam Hussein , capitalizing on the sectarian conflict between the Shi 'ite (Iran ) and Sunni (Iraq ) Muslims . In 1980 , Iraq launched a war against Iran which lasted for eight years until a peace agreement was brokered by the United Nations (UN ) in 1988 . Demoralized and enraged with the losses that it suffered from the war , Khomeini begun supporting international terrorism and demonizing the US as the enemy of Islam Hussein , on the other hand , was emboldened by the acquisition of its military capability -- which included chemical weapons that it reportedly used against Kurds and Iranians -- and in 1990 , invaded Kuwait , a small , oil-rich neighboring state , to whom it had become indebted after its war with Iran

The invasion of Kuwait , now known as the Gulf War , quickly became a war between...