Creating an Islamic Monster
The fall of the Shah and the expulsion of US oil companies from Iran severely rattled the government of Jimmy Carter. Compounding America’s energy and security concerns, the Soviet Union had recently invaded Afghanistan in what many observers believed was a blatant first step in a push to control some part of the Persian Gulf. The US believed Iran, with its access to the Persian Gulf, could be the next target for the Soviet Union.
In his 1980 State of the Union speech, Democratic president Jimmy Carter confronted this threat. In what became known as the Carter Doctrine, he said, “Let our position be absolutely clear. An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
To back up the Carter Doctrine, the National Security Council headed by National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski created a new military unit that could be sent anywhere in the world at short notice. It was called the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force and though originally conceived as a lighting force to assure the unimpeded flow of Persian Gulf oil it soon it evolved into a unified command for the all of the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and North Africa. In time it would be renamed the US Central Command.
The Carter administration also helped unleash another force that over the next decade would play a more profound role in Middle East politics than the US military. In a series of secret legal documents known as Presidential Findings, Carter authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin covert action against the Soviet army in Afghanistan. Carter could have had no idea just what he had set in motion but, for the best part of the next decade through two successive Reagan administrations, the CIA helped turn a ragtag group of Afghanistan resistance fighters into a well-trained and very well-armed Mujahadeen – or God’s Army.
It was a large and costly operation and to help fund it, the US turned to Saudi Arabia for help. The Saudi kingdom had already begun to transform itself into a forward base for the Rapid Defense Task Force. Convinced that the Soviets had designs on their oil supplies, the Saudis agreed to match the $15 million Congress had appropriated for the Afghan struggle in 1983. In time the budget would increase to $250 million and the Saudis matched it each time.
Thousands of young men from all over the Middle East made the journey to Afghanistan to take part in the Jihad – or holy war- against the Soviet infidel. Not only did they succeed in driving out the Soviets but they emboldened the cause of Islam and the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. Much of this new fighting force would return to the Middle East and they would hold onto the weapons – notably the AK-47s, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPGs) and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles – with which the CIA had supplied them. Before too long, this fighting force would turn against a new infidel – its old benefactor, the United States.
While the Soviets were suffering a slow Vietnam-style humiliation in Afghanistan, the Reagan administration continued to look after its interests in the Middle East. The US still maintained its good relations with Saudi Arabia but it was also eager to support the avowed enemy of its avowed enemy, Iran. His name was Saddam Hussein and to the US, his secular strongman regime in Iraq was a refreshing and stable counterpoint to the Islamic crazies next door in Tehran.
The Reagan administration dallied with Saddam Hussein for nearly three years, but by then, the Middle East had been replaced in importance by the administration’s anti-communist campaigns in Europe and Central America. One reason for this was that OPEC members had undercut themselves by over-producing oil and world prices had plummeted. The major consuming nations, meanwhile, began to cut their dependence on the Middle East by consuming less oil and turning to new oil sources from the North Sea, Alaska and Africa.
Not that Middle East oil could be ignored. In the late summer of 1990 Saddam Hussein once again delivered a shock to the world energy status quo when he invaded Kuwait in a grab for that nation’s oil fields. Many observers believed the US had not done enough to dampen Hussein’s territorial ambitions in the months leading up to the invasion, but once Iraq attacked, President George Bush moved quickly to assemble an international coalition to repulse Iraq. The coalition was formed in the name of restoring Kuwaiti sovereignty but no-one was in any doubt that the security of Middle East oil was the real concern.
Saudi Arabia was particularly worried about Saddam Hussein and it allowed US forces to set up staging bases on Saudi soil for a war against Iraq. The efficiency of the US deployment showed just how closely the two old allies understood each other. Since the Soviet threat a decade earlier, Saudi Arabia had built vast underground warehouses where US weapons and materiel could be stored as well as enormous aircraft hangers just in case the US needed to fly in.
The coalition forces were successful in expelling Iraq from Kuwait but the US left large numbers of troops in Saudi Arabia after the war to deter further Iraqi aggression and to guarantee the security of world oil. In doing so, the US once again stirred Arab resentment of the West and its historic meddling in the Middle East. Muslim anger at US forces staying in the land of Islam’s most sacred sites only grew with the return of thousands of well-armed fundamentalist Mujahadeen from Afghanistan. One such religious warrior was the Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden. He declared a holy war on the US for defiling Islam and for its continued support of Israel. As part of his new jihad, Bin Laden would target US interests in Saudi Arabia and Africa. Then, on September 11, 2001 he brought his holy war home to America. Fifteen of the attackers that day came from America’s longtime oil ally, Saudi Arabia.
US forces have pulled out of Saudi Arabia but they now find themselves an occupying force next door in Iraq. The second Gulf War that drove Saddam Hussein out of power in March 2003 once again placed the United States front and center in the complicated world of Middle East affairs. It is a region that will only grow in importance as the world’s dependence on oil grows. And that means US forces will remain in the Middle East for a long time to come.