The Middle East

                Known as the powder keg of the world, the Middle East causes tensions everywhere. The fighting never stops and due to different relationships with countries, the whole world is involved. Throughout history, the Middle East has been fighting. There has always been fighting and I feel like there will always be fighting. We’ve had the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, and Turks rule these lands and the list goes on and on and on. All these nations fought and battle; the sand of the Middle East is red with blood of millions of people fighting. It won’t stop and sooner or later things could get worse.

                Religion seems to be the thing that causes all these wars. Along with religion, we see oil, differing cultures, interpretations of religion, and diplomacy with other countries playing a role in all the fighting in The Middle East. All these factors have led to not just war between two nations but an extremely complex and confusing war between different groups and terrorism and everyone. Different rebel groups and many governments make the Middle East an impossible place to create boundaries, especially boundaries everyone can agree on. It’s a giant mess, in the Middle East, and fixing it doesn’t seem possible.

                Now let’s talk about our country and US influence in the Middle East. We, like every other country in the world, have major influence and are the puppet masters of what goes on in the Middle East. Other powerful countries such as Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom also take part in this battle for power in the Middle East. We’ve been in many wars in the Middle East, spending billions of dollars to keep the country’s interests protected. 9/11 is of course what started our major influence in the Middle East.  We sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan leaving with almost nothing to show for it. The Middle East is a black hole for lives, money, and diplomacy; you can put in a lot but get almost nothing in return. The reason we stay in is oil. Oil runs our country and everywhere in the Middle East is full of it. Do we get out what we put in though? We spend billions and billions of dollars trying to be friends with countries like Saudi Arabia when all we get out of it is 13% of our oil supply. 13% isn’t that much and I’m not sure if it’s worth millions of lives just for some oil and not even that much.

                There is the question of course, that if we don’t intervene, what would be different? Would it be the same or would the Middle East be home for terrorists? I think we would be a lot safer if we just stayed out of affairs in the Middle East. Defend our own country will make our world better than trying to stop a force (terrorism) that will always be present. Terrorism can’t just lose too many battles then lose the war and disappear, they will always be present and antagonizing them will be bad for everyone. Terrorist groups wouldn’t hate us and a lot less people would die. America needs to realize that being a police force, although good at times, can be a very bad thing.